Extra-judicial killings

Why does Kenya’s presidential election keep producing contested results and deaths? How did the opposition’s strongholds in various parts of the country, especially the slums, become the killing fields of those protesting the declaration of the 2017 presidential results?

It was in Louisville, Kentucky, that I first encountered the problem that ultimately – but remotely – resulted in the tragic deaths of five policemen in Dallas, Texas, last week.

The problem? The hostility between Black men (especially young ones) and white police officers.

The gruesome murder of lawyer Willie Kimani, his client Josphat Mwenda and their taxi driver Joseph Muiruri has evoked a countrywide uproar, and chillingly reminded us that impunity is still alive in Kenya.

Our country’s battered human rights record was dealt another blow on the evening of 22 March, when anti-mining activist and Amadiba Crisis Committee Chairperson, Sikhosiphi Bazooka Rhadebe, was gunned down in another seemingly state-sponsored hit.