Dear Sir/Madam,

On July 30, 2010, Nairobi, a young man walked out of a commercial bank and was accosted by a group of snorting police officers whose keen sense of smell convinced them “beyond any reasonable doubt” that the said young man was from a robbery mission. They pounced on him and attempted to empty his pockets of the cash he had just withdrawn from the bank. Were it not for the timely intervention of the public the young man would probably have become part of the ever increasing statistics of police brutality and robbery with violence.

If it interests you, you will also have noted that even with the publicity that this incident attracted there was no suggestion of any kind of appeal to justice and no suggestion of any recompense for the grave and gratuitous damage which this young man endured. The young man`s tone was simply the tone of one who had miraculously survived from the jaws of death. Who knows, he could have died under a hail of bullets and a toy pistol planted on him-a most wanted criminal indeed!

But if the above incident leaves you distraught, you are probably lily-livered. Two weeks earlier in Kangemi, Nairobi, a 76 year old man happened to be in the streets where there was a great commotion. Many people, including frightened old women, little girls and boys were running from the police. Then the old man noticed three energetic male police officers (in frenzy) bludgeon up a defenseless woman like one would a viper. He spoke up and asked them, “Why are you beating her like that?” Startled by his unwarranted interference, one of them let his adept fingers pull the trigger and the old man fell down looking at the police officers, disbelief written allover his face. None of them appeared disconcerted at the old man`s twitching body nor the wailing of his anguished daughter. In fact, according to witnesses, these policemen engaged in some levity over the incident. The old man succumbed to the fatal bullet wound a few minutes later. He became yet another statistic of police brutality. One cannot possibly arrive at a more sure-fire formula for cruelty.

Yet, it would appear that this arrogant autonomy is guaranteed to some police officers by their superiors. Otherwise, why would they, ad infinitum, dare carry out acts which are pure anarchy? Whenever the top police brass is hard pressed for action against rogue officers, they bellow out the same stale lie of yesteryears “investigations will be carried out and officers found culpable will be disciplined.”

The worst part is that the same police officers investigate themselves, quite as though they were answerable only to themselves. But they cannot be allowed to be answerable only to themselves. They must be made to be answerable to the common man and woman. After all, this is the tax payer who remunerates them, and who they are legally sworn to protect. However, if in their estimation, the common man and woman is not a part of the “Kenyans” that they are supposed to protect, then allow me to say without fear of contradiction that all of the Kenyan police force is but a big fraud.

TOME FRANCIS,

BUMULA.

http://twitter.com/tomefrancis