‘Pseudo-unmasking’: Senator Oketch says wearing tags, using marked vehicles won’t make police accountable
Migori Senator Eddy Oketch speaks on Citizen TV’s Daybreak program, August 15, 2024.
Migori Senator Eddy Oketch has downplayed Wednesday’s court orders directing the police not to hide their identities and faces or use unmarked vehicles when deployed in demonstrations.
The High Court directed
the Inspector General of Police to ensure officers wear name tags and have
their service numbers displayed as part of their uniform, after uproar over the
police’s conduct during the recent deadly anti-government protests.
Senator Oketch has however
termed the move as “pseudo-unmasking”, arguing that it will not enhance
accountability in the police force.
He told Citizen TV’s
Daybreak program on Thursday that of greater concern should be political powers
he accused of giving the police freedom to conduct themselves as seen during the
demos where they covered their faces, patrolled and arrested protesters,
forcing them into unmarked vehicles.
“This is an attempt to mask the police but
it is pseudo-unmasking; it is not proper unmasking. Proper unmasking is
removing the political mask that allows some of the policemen to operate this
way,” Oketch said.
“What we are seeing during the protests is
some policemen allowed by political masks and lawful structures to do this kind
of thing.”
The senator added: “There are particular
instances where police would be forced to use unmarked vehicles or hidden identity
but to the extent that they are lawful.”
Wednesday's court
orders came after the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) moved to court under a
certificate of urgency arguing that the police and their agents have been
threatening accountability in the National Police Service.
Police have been heavily criticised for
using excessive force and violence against Kenyans in the wake of the
anti-government protests.
Top of the issues is the opening of fire on
unarmed Kenyans, forceful arrests and orchestrating the abduction of vocal
personalities in the demonstrations, in what is seen as suppression of dissent against
President William Ruto’s administration.
Data by the government watchdog Kenya
National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) shows 66 protestors were recorded
missing while at least 60 others were killed during the protests as of July 25, although
human rights groups say the figures are much higher.
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