Report paints grim picture of police service in fight against Covid-19

By Silas Apollo

Almost half of Kenyans have either been harassed, arrested or beaten up by police enforcing curfews and other measures introduced by the government to tame the spread of the coronavirus.

A new report by watchdog Mzalendo – famed for assessing and ranking the performance of MPs – says domestic and gender-based violence has also been on the rise since the country reported its first case of the virus in March.

It said the reasons tied to the time spent at home with limited public interactions as one of the measures for curbing the virus.

The report, whose findings are based on a study conducted between March and June, shows that while the restrictions by the government were part of globally approved standards aimed for containing the deadly virus,they helped escalate cases of human rights violations, violence against men and women, and in some instances shrunk the democratic space in the country.

For instance, Parliament and the Judiciary are said to have reduced their operations, leading to a surge in the number of human rights abuse cases as victims have few or no avenues for redress.

The report says that the closure of the courts, and in some cases the reduction of activity in the Judiciary, meant that perpetrators of police brutality and gender-based violence had free will to conduct their ills.

“Human rights have been affected during Covid-19 with an enforced curfew, cessation of inter-country movement and social distancing orders for the nation. Gender-based violence has increased with time spent at home in response to the pandemic,” says the report.

“Court proceedings, limited to virtual sessions, have seen human rights, gender-based violence and the course of justice adversely affected. The pace of the Judiciary’s discharge of duties has stuttered.”