Police Executions Points to Failure of the System

On Tuesday, 19th January, news about the execution of three Kenyans in the streets of Nairobi by members of a notorious death squad operating within the police force shocked Kenyans and the world alike. The brutal day light murders which was captured on camera by a motorist, confirmed that despite the promulgation of a new constitution in Kenya, the use of instruments of State power to murder Kenyans continues unabated.

Secondly, the cold blooded murders of Kenyans whom, according to the constitution, should have been presumed innocent until proved guilty, was further confirmation that the constitution is a piece of paper that has and will continue to be violated by the State at will to protect the interest of the rich whose property is constantly at risk of being stolen by the poor seeking a way out of poverty or simply struggling to survive.

Just like the old colonial constitution, the new constitution recognizes the sanctity of life and the right of Kenyans to personal security. What the brutal murders has further exposed is that in Kenya, there is cheap life of ordinary citizens that can be taken away at any time and protected lives of members of the ruling class and their wealthy allies. The Tuesday executions are reminiscent of executions witnessed during the dictatorship of Daniel arap Moi. The fundamental lesson Kenyans have to learn is that despite the change of guard in the country’s leadership, the status quo that dictates the conduct of police has not changed. This is not strange.

In a backward capitalist country like Kenya, an adept adherence to the basic rules of the game especially by partisan security forces is secondary. This is because the police exist to protect the interests of the ruling class and their rich allies. At the propaganda level, the police force, secret intelligence services and the standing army (all instruments of violence against the people) are neatly packaged as servants of the people. However, these forces are recruited, constituted, trained, armed, directed and compensated to protect the interests of the ruling class and their allies, not the people.  Tuesday’s brutal execution of the three Kenyans in broad daylight by personnel supposedly trained to use firearms to maintain law and order is therefore “part of official policy” based on the long standing concept of “shoot to kill” in the name of controlling crime.

Is it surprising that the cold-blooded merchants of death have been “interdicted” by Internal Security Minister George Saitoti and not arrested to face charges in a court of law? What is there to investigate when the murders were captured on camera and when photographic evidence shows that the “suspects” had followed orders, got outside their car, lay on the ground and surrendered before they were shot? The interdictions are a window-dressing exercise ahead of release of the killers or a cosmetic make-over to sooth public anger.

At this point, whether or not the suspects were criminals or innocent Kenyans is hypothetical. What is certain is that their lives have been taken away brutally because of impunity within the system, the same impunity which led to the raid on the Standard, the stealing of Raila Odinga’s Presidency, the slaughter of over 1500 Kenyans during the PEV, creation of half a million internal refugees, the execution of more than 5,000 youths during the “Mungiki menace” and killing of thousands of other Kenyans by State agents employed to protect the system.

Fresh executions should be expected
Although Kenyans, Church groups, politicians, the Civil Society, Human Rights Defenders and other actors have been calling for an end to the executions, the situation is unlikely to change because of two reasons.

The system of capitalism remains entrenched in Kenya (albeit in its deformed state) while this system is known to be a constant breeder of criminals. This is because the system is designed to create mass unemployment which, conversely, directs the youth into crime as a way of survival.

Anybody who is faced with the prospect of starving to death due to lack of options is likely to turn to crime and it is for this reason that despite more than 4 decades of anti-crime work by police, criminals continue to get even more sophisticated and daring as they increase in numbers. To end crime in a capitalist society such as Kenya, the system must be abolished and replaced by a system designed to end dominance of millions by the tiny and rich class of wealth grabbers so that resources being stolen by these fraudsters can be directed into job creating investments that can, in turn, prevent the youth from engaging in crime.

The population of Kenya continues to grow and, if a scientific analysis of the situation has to be rendered, the rate of population growth should be commensurate with the rate of expansion of infrastructure. In the process of this expansion (on a national scale) jobs can constantly be created to address the issue of mass unemployment. The shortcoming in Kenya is that resources that could be invested in infrastructural expansion as a job creating strategy are shamelessly being stolen by members of the ruling class and their foreign allies. This looting process is what creates repeated corruption scandals under the system as the looters compete to accumulate wealth that they may not even need in their lifetimes.

The execution of the three Kenyans by agents of the brutal State has to be seen within an ideological context to prevent an oversimplification of the situation. While it is paramount that the executions be condemned “in the strongest terms possible”, it is also incumbent that the root cause of the problem be examined with an open mind.

Condemning the executions by police-turned-criminals and attacking the government for doing nothing could be very urgent from the point of view of “doing something” in the face of impunity. However, failure to understand that the system of government supports both crime and impunity in the interest of the ruling class amounts to seeking prophylactic measures to a contagious disease without making any efforts to eliminate the offending pathogen.

Until Kenyans appreciate this dynamic, the question of crime, police executions and ruling class interests served by security forces will continue to evade their understanding and therein rests the lack of a solution to a rather complex problem. There is no level of police reform that will effectively address the crisis because the problem is based on a failure of a system which has been in crisis for more than three decades and which is ripe for overthrow.  In the meantime, Kenyans should expect fresh executions.

Okoth Osewe

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A blog for News and Events happening around Kenyans in Stockholm.

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