Kenyan minister defends police over killings claims

By Andrew Wasike

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) - Kenya’s interior minister Tuesday hit back at claims that police carried out 121 extrajudicial killings in the first eight months of 2016.

In a news conference, Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery did not deny that some police officers had been involved in crime but said such incidents involved a “few rogue elements” within the service.

His comments follow allegations in the Sunday Nation newspaper that 121 were shot and killed by Kenyan police between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31, based on media reports and data from the Independent Policing Oversight Authority.

The figure represented a 7 percent rise on the same period in 2015, the newspaper said. It also reported that since January 2015, at least 262 people had been killed by police, or 13 per month.

“The allegations are clearly unsubstantiated and given in bad faith to undermine the efforts made by police and other security agencies in managing and controlling crime in this country,” Nkaissery told reporters.

He added: “There is no policy whatsoever within the National Police Service to engage in extrajudicial killings. Furthermore, figures presented in the report to try and justify its wild allegations were grossly wrong and not verified.”

Police killings were highlighted in June when human rights lawyer Willie Kimani, his client and their driver were killed. A court has ruled that police officers abducted, tortured and killed the trio.

Nkaissery said a few protesters had been killed by mistake but claimed “a few rascals do not justify condemnation of an entire institution.”