IPOA completes probe into police brutality cases amid public pressure
By Mary Wambui |
The authority is mandated to probe police misconduct, deaths, and serious injuries caused by police action.
The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) now says it has completed a probe into four cases of police brutality that occurred during the anti-finance bill protests and forwarded their files to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions for action.
In a status update, the authority further said it has obtained medical records for all victims of the protests that have been treated at the Kenyatta National Hospital and from other hospitals across the country in its attempt to build their case following pressure from public members to bring justice to affected families.
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"Key witness statements have been obtained for most cases," the authority added.
Earlier, the authority had decried a lack of cooperation from state agencies, saying that was making it difficult for them to execute their constitutional mandate.
IPOA Commissioner John Waiganjo said this has been largely perpetrated by the police, whom the law requires to cooperate with the authority in its probes.
Waiganjo claimed the criticism the authority has been getting from the public over its alleged failure to execute its mandate stemmed from a lack of understanding of the frustrations that the authority faces in its attempts to get to the bottom of the matter.
He said such frustrations occur when officers withhold a file that the IPOA needs to crack a case.
"We sometimes go back to them to get certain documentation that we cannot move without but find a hostile environment, and when we give out summons, they are not responded to. We want the public to know we are working under very tough conditions. During the lifetime of IPOA, we have not seen the level of uncooperation we are seeing now from senior police officers," he said.
The frustrations, he added, also come from hospitals that attend to victims, saying some refuse to give them information on their patients, further complicating their work.
The authority is mandated to probe police misconduct, deaths, and serious injuries caused by police action.
On Wednesday, the authority received a complaint about the arrest of veteran journalist Macharia Gaitho, who was abducted by DCI detectives at Karen police station, where he had fled after realising he was being followed by a suspicious vehicle.
Upon arrival at the station, he was forcefully ejected out of his vehicle, bundled into another vehicle (probox), and driven off.
Later, the police headquarters released a statement claiming that the incident was a case of mistaken identity.
"Mr Gaitho's case has been taken up by IPOA, and the authority has already sent officers to Karen police station suo moto (on its own motion) after videos of his arrest were circulated on social media," IPOA said on Wednesday.
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