Kenyan police head list of torturers

By Magdalene Mukami

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) - Police officers are the main torturers in Kenya, according to a human rights report released Tuesday.

The Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU) highlighted the denial of legal access, physical assault, sleep deprivation, burning, suffocation and rape as some of the practices employed by the National Police.

“Torture and ill-treatment are among the most abhorrent violations of human dignity and human rights,” Peter Kiama, IMLU executive director, said at a news conference in Nairobi. “Cases of torture and ill-treatment in Kenya are on the rise.”

Nearly a third of respondents to the National Torture Prevalence survey said they had been the victims of torture or ill-treatment. Police accounted for 59 percent of torture cases, the survey found, with other criminal justice agencies also linked to the practice.

A police spokesman denied the claim and said police were leading the fight against torture. “The person who mostly fights against torture is the police,” he told Anadolu Agency. “All cases of assault are handled by the police. If this is true we would want to see these officers charged in court.”

Police in Kenya have recently been linked to a spate of extra-judicial killings.