By Mc’Olonde Charles
As you probably know (or not), I got kicked out of our Court’s Whatsapp group around this time last year… the issue was my considered ‘un-middleclass’ stand on Extrajudicial Executions. You see, ‘we’ (the upperpoor class pretending to be middle-class) are expected to react to every news of cops killing ‘criminals’ with “wacha hao vijana wakufe”, “ua kabisa, hao ndio wanatuibia… ” etc etc
Any contrary opinion is ignorantly met with “huyu ni kama mmoja wao” “mbona unawatetea?” “wacha ile siku watakuiibia ndio utajua blah blah blah”… and as you also probably know (or not) am not one to pass up a good argument opportunity… so, long story short, I no longer get top secret notices on when maji itapotea or mtoto wa nani has a birthday 😅
Seriously though, back to EJE, just read a report on police killing 24 youths in the last 3 weeks; six in Dandora; two in Mowlem; 10 in Mathare North; four in Majengo; and two in Kayole… and that got me thinking, why not in Kibera, Mukuru or Kawangware?? Is it the demography, the police or what?
Why is EJE rampant in specific informal areas, and not in others? If crime is driven by unemployment + poverty, why only in certain slums and not all? Are the residents of some slums less criminal or do the police just act with cold-blooded impunity in targeted areas?… think about it. Maybe, just maybe, a solution lies in the police from those two areas having an ‘exchange program’, same to the activists and well, even the criminals… hopefully, learn from each other on why only one side gets bullets for breakfast.
Have a judicial day folks.
Julius Okoth There is always victims in extra judicial executions, and there is always victims in robbery with violence. Social justice movements need to stand in solidarity with victims of robbery with violence and victims of extra judicial executions.
Wilson Ngugi: we have casualized injustice till it has become acceptable…. what the society needs to understand is tht the reason we call ourselves a civilized society is not what we have but how we do our things if we let police to decide who to kill and who not then we are yet to be civilized coz even from our constitution its criminal for police to shoot to kill, police are only allowed to shoot in two scenarios 1: if his life or life of a victim is at risk 2: if the perpetrator is getting away he is allowed to shoot to immobilise (mark the word to immobilize not to kill) but here in Eastland we see police shooting suspects they have apprehended or they get them out of the house line them in the veranda and shot them in cold blood to make it worse infront of young kids
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