KAIKAI'S KICKER: Who killed protesters?

On my Kicker tonight, it was the turn of Interior CS Prof. Kithure Kindiki to say some of those very difficult things. So difficult that they are the kind of things you wouldn’t say in front of your own character referee.

Now, if we heard him right, the Interior CS tried to suggest that some protestors shot dead by the police were actually not shot dead by the police. The suggestion here is there were guns other than those of the police that were in use during the deadly police killings.

Now, Professor Kindiki did not submit to Parliament evidence to that effect. When it comes to police killings, and we can add mysterious disappearances, authorities in Kenya have always found themselves in the space between outright denial and straight-faced inaccuracies.

It seemed to me, that is the space Professor Kindiki found himself today as questions persist over the rampant killings of protestors in June. The Interior CS submitted a different body count. He said 42 people died, this contradicting the earlier figure of 61 given by human rights groups including the government’s own Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR). Whether 42 or 61 Kenyans died, the Kenyan reality is the June killings is not a matter that can be wished away. Those questions, just like Baby Pendo's, will remain something of a nuisance that just won’t go away, especially for those from whom answers and accountability are required.

Accountability should in the meantime extend to respecting the intelligence of ordinary Kenyans, because when it comes to police killings, Kenyans have been treated to sometimes comical tales. At the height of post-election violence, I remember a police spokesman dismissing the gunning down of an unarmed protestor, an incident captured on camera, as a computer graphic.

It was a ridiculous argument but one that was shamelessly sustained as the official explanation to a police execution captured on camera. Kenyans seemingly moved on, just the same way they moved on when Chief Government Pathologist at the time Jason Ndaka Kaviti told them that assassinated Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Ouko shot himself dead, set himself on fire, and then attempted to flee the scene.

That is the yarn spun by authorities when under pressure to account, and it is a culture that dates back to the 60s and 70s where killings and disappearances are not explained. That is why until today, Kung’u Karumba is still in Uganda. And that is why until his body was discovered behind Ngong Hills, J.M. Kariuki was in Zambia. And that is why, if you believe this trail, some protestors shot themselves dead exactly three months and a day ago tonight.

That’s my Kicker!