Report ranks Pangani police station the worst in extrajudicial killings

Pangani Police station in Nairobi leads in the number of extrajudicial killings in the country, a new Missing Voices report shows.

Missing Voices, a consortium of organizations working towards the end of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in the country listed the station as most ‘notorious’.

In their annual report released in Nakuru yesterday, the lobby group revealed that they had documented at least 30 cases of police killings that are reportedly associated with Pangani.

For instance, in 2021, according to Missing Voices, every month, with the exception of June, officers from Pangani are accused of murder revealing that the numbers are alarming.

The report indicated that the police killed many people while enforcing strict COVID-19 regulations, including a curfew.

According to Ngugi, in 2021, statistics documented by the lobby group recorded at least 219 cases of police killings and enforced disappearances (ED) in 161 separate incidents.

Out of these, 187 cases were of police killings, and 32 of enforced disappearances. Of the 32 cases of EDs, two of the victims were later found alive after campaigns by civil society organizations.

“Originally there were 36 cases of enforced disappearances; four of these were found dead more than 24 hours after disappearing in police custody, two were returned alive and 30 remain missing,” said Ngugi.

He further revealed that for the last three years, during which Missing Voices has actively tracked the data, police have killed more than 500 people.

The numbers show a steep rise in the alleged extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances this year compared to 2020.

“In 2019, Missing Voice documented 145 cases of police killings.168 people were killed or disappeared in police custody in 2020,” he said.

The launch brought together stakeholders from the judiciary, the church, police and human right defender groups.

A case in point is Stella Nthenya who voiced her concerns over the delay in seeking justice for her 17 years’ old son who was killed in 2016 at Mukuru kwa Reuben together with other six young men. Nthenya stated that despite adequate evidence up-to-date judgement has not been delivered making it appear to be a government policy on enforced disappearances and police killings.

According to Ngugi, it was unfortunate that all of the accused officers continued operating in the same communities and used unlawful tactics to throw out or weaken the cases.

A case illustrating delayed justice is the Mavoko 3 case. June 23, 2022 will be the sixth anniversary of the disappearance and murder of International Justice Mission (IJM) lawyer Willie Kimani, IJM’s client Josephat Mwenda, and trusted taxi driver Joseph Muiruri.

The judiciary led by Lady Justice Grace Nzioka, presiding judge, criminal division of the high court said there was a need to work together to ensure victims and survivors get justice.