The Kenyan government announced a curfew on the 25th of March. However, the curfew has not been specified in terms of the period it will last. As of now, the government has confirmed 59 cases of the COVID-19. However, with limited testing instruments, the number of infections is likely higher. However, as the country fights a global pandemic, the law enforcers turn to be more of a deadly epidemic ready to brutalize and even murder citizens while enforcing the law.
The curfew started on the wrong page, with police across Kenya using excessive force, beating, and using tear gas on citizens. Local television stations and social media showed footage of policing brutally beating people to the point of bleeding. While others attacked journalists chasing them away, this was happening in different parts of the country an hour or two before the curfew.
Political leaders, media, and human right activist have widely condemned police violence, but the Kenyan interior cabinet secretary blamed Kenyans for their lack of discipline.
A 13-Year-Old Boy Shot Dead by the police.
Monday evening, in a small town by the name Kiamaiko in Huruma estate, the usually busy streets were so quiet. A young boy by the name Yassin Moyo, his mother, and five siblings went about their usual evening routine on while seated on their balcony. Yassin’s father was watching the news at around 7: 30 pm at his neighbor’s house. Yassin’s mother was feeding her one-year-old child. There was an immediate turn of events when a bullet suddenly whizzed their way.
Moyo is interrupted by his wife screaming and rushes to his house, where he finds Yassin wounded, gasping for air. A policeman fired two shots towards his building, and one struck Yassin’s stomach. The neighbors helped the family take the boy to a nearby hospital, Mama Lucy. On arrival there, he is immediately put in the intensive care unit as he awaits surgery. At three in the morning, on that Tuesday, Yassin kicks the bucket while in the surgery room.
When Moyo goes to report the incident. Police dismissed him and instructed to come back later as the OCS was not around.
Justices for Yassin.
“Where do we seek refuge if not in our very own houses? We demand justice for my son. We are aware nobody can bring him back to life, but I hope the perpetrator does not walk free,” Moyo says.
Yassin Moyo, the 13-year-old boy shot dead, was to sit for his KCPE at Valley Bridge Primary School this year. He laid to rest at Kariako Muslim Cemetery on Tuesday. Hilary Mutyambai, Inspector General of Police, instructed DCI chief George Kinoti to investigate into the death. He further directed the DCI to do a forensic analysis of all firearms held by police officers on duty within that locale.
Director of Public Prosecutions, Noordin Haji, ordered police to forward him the case file for action after investigation. This is not the first killing allegedly caused by police while enforcing curfew that began on Friday a week before. Their widespread violence now causes public wrath.
The Kenyan government implemented the 7 pm to 5 am lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus; however, it has now become a red zone. Reported however of police taking advantage of the situation to harass, beat, and even kill innocent citizens seem to increase each day.
Edwin Sifuna, ODM Secretary General, demanded that officers enforcing the dusk to dawn curfew must show respect to the people of Kenya and observe human rights at all times.
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