The Courts Have a Central Role to Play in the War on Terror

The Courts Have a Central Role to Play in the War on Terror

Mohamed Ali interviews an eyewitness who allegedly witnessed extrajudicial killings.Photo Al Jazeera

By MUSYOKA NGUI

I watched KTN’s senior reporter Mohamed Ali’s investigative documentary that aired on People and Power program in Al Jazeera with shock and fear if indeed what it claims is true. Killing Kenya is an aptly titled piece that sequels Inside Kenya’s Death Squad that earlier alleged violations of human rights by Kenyan police commonly termed as extra judicial killings. These reports are all available on YouTube and aljazeera.com for anyone’s verification.

On December 7, 2014 Al Jazeera English released the damning documentary that looked into the extrajudicial killings in Kenya. Two days later Information Cabinet Secretary Dr. Fred Matiang’i defended the government in Doha, the headquarters of the Arabic channel.

The shocking numbers “revealed”, as it were, are grossly worrying. That “over 1500 Kenyan citizens have been killed by the police since 2009 and that statistically Kenyans are five times more likely to be shot by a policeman than a criminal” makes for a devastating viewing.

SHOOT TO KILL ORDERS

The camera catches Mombasa County Commissioner Nelson Marwa admitting that extrajudicial killings take place and that the police have little options on the table. Human rights crusaders and lawyers will tell you for free that the sanctity of every human life is important and killing an alleged criminal is in itself a most violation of basic human rights. Suspects are ordinarily taken to court to stand trial before a just judge but in the absence of the just judge police are accused of playing the accuser, the judge and the executioner.

What is worrying is that a narrative alluding to religious persecution of a certain section of the society emerges in the film. This should not be encouraged at all given that Kenya is a secular State where all religions exist peacefully. Profiling persons on the basis of their beliefs is illegal.

CONFIDENTIAL SOURCES

Most importantly, the investigation should have revealed the truth. Since this is a delicate balancing act, Matiang’i in his studio interview got away with denying the claims by boxing the interviewer into a tight spot when he dared the anchor to reveal the sources. Now that is against media ethics since it’d endanger the lives of the sources and erode the confidence they have in reporters. Matiang’i resorts to what he calls innuendo, gossips, and rumors.

Simon Boazman who did the original investigative documentary Inside Kenya’s Death Squads quotes the UN report by special rapporteur Philip Alliston which also adversely mentioned police for extrajudicial killings. Ali himself has accused the police of extrajudicial killings in his exposes.  There is need to jealously guard and preserve national security while fighting the war on terror. As such, suspects deserve to be handled humanely. But so are the victims’ right to justice. The best placed determiner of whether one is guilty or not guilty is an independent court which should be allowed to do its job. Of course ridding corruption in the security agencies, equipping the forces and remunerating them to boost their morale will go a long way in averting needless deaths of innocent civilians in the hands of the police as it has been claimed by multiple investigating agencies including the media and the civil society.