OPINION: POLICE TOO ARE HUMANE

Kenya Police Officers during a recent pass-out parade

The condemnation of the police by Human Rights groups and the International community is a little bit misplaced. The police are agents of state and have the monopoly of force hence the killing of persons, who in law are presumed innocent, by the police is a clear contravention of the social contract between the people and the state. The Police Act and the Police Force Standing Orders go to great lengths to detail how lethal force should be applied.
It is easy for a person who has not found themselves in the hands of crooked criminals to say that they are "innocent" and that the police used "excessive" force to tackle the criminals. It is even easier for a diplomat who enjoys diplomatic immunity as well as a good contingent of police officers at his command for his security to claim that criminals possessing illegal firearms are innocent. When police shoot criminals Human Rights groups and activists come up with their guns blazing condemning the act.However,when a police officer is shot, attacked or even humuliated,not even a single one of these activists seem to care much. It is the high time that we all know that police officers are human too, they also have families to cater for and who love them too.
The 'shoot to kill' directive a couple of years back by the then Internal Security Minister, John Michuki had seen a dramatic reduction in crime. Just like the police commissioner says a gun is no spoon, when in the hands of criminals, it will be surely used if you step on their toes. It’s meant to kill. The police should therefore not hesitate to use their arms in handling these criminals or else the next minute an officer or even a member of the public will be lying in their place. The police are trained specifically for this purpose. Though some of these officers are in the spotlight in overusing their privillige, their shooting criminals should not at all times be criticized. This is not to say that the killings by the police is justified or should not be condemned.
The police as state machineries have the entire panoply of state resources at its disposal to be able to protect the human rights of police officers including the use of force. Human Rights organizations on the other hand are organizations of limited remit, created by law and can only deal with matters their constitutive documents or budgets allow. The police commissioner, the minister in-charge of internal security seem to be reading from totally different pages, with the commissioner saying that his 'mboys' (officers) will not relent in using their arms to finish crime as his boss says that the police should not use force while handling criminals. This beats logic, why will an armed officer handle an armed criminal who may splash him with bullets anytime with 'less force'?
To cut a long story short, I fully and strongly condemn the killing of innocent persons by the police and I also condemn killing of police officers by some unruly and crooked criminals.

Kelvin Mwangi
Nairobi.

The opinion above does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of The African Voices.