Kenyans five times more likely to die from police bullet

Umazi Zani (right), the mother of 14-year-old Kwekwe Mwandaza, a Class Four pupil in Kwale County who was mysteriously shot by police on August 21, 2014, speaks about the shooting at the offices of Muslims for Human Rights in Mombasa. The Independent Medico-Legal Unit says Kenyans are five times more likely to die from a police bullet than from one fired by a criminal. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

In Summary

• IMLU director Peter Kiama told a forum Tuesday that police were killing more people than criminals.
• By July 30, Mr Kiama said, they had recorded 160 cases of people who had died as a result of police bullets.
• Some Kenyans considered the killings “a good riddance” to eliminate criminal gangs.

By MACHARIA MWANGI
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Kenyans are five times more likely to die from a police bullet than from one fired by a criminal, a lobby group has said.

Independent Medico-Legal Unit executive director Peter Kiama told a forum Tuesday that police were killing more people than criminals.

Speaking during a regional conference on criminal justice at a Naivasha hotel, Mr Kiama said research conducted at local mortuaries found 60 per cent of the more than 1,800 cases documented by police died as a result of being shot by the law enforcers.

LIVES THREATENED

“It is alarming that the police are finding it easier to use a bullet when there is no exchange of fire or even when their lives are not threatened,” he said.

By July 30, Mr Kiama said, they had recorded 160 cases of people who had died as a result of police bullets, most of them suspected to be victims of extrajudicial killings.

He blamed public perception for the injustices, saying some Kenyans considered the killings “good riddance” to eliminate criminal gangs