This archive report was first published on 25 June 2020.
Kenya: Street Families Face Double Jeopardy of Cold Nights and Police Brutality ¶
Exactly 14 days ago, a group of street families was braving a cold night at the Muthurwa roundabout in Nairobi's central business district when police officers from the Kamukunji Police Station showed up to chase them away.
The engagement turned physical, and one young family - a man, his wife, and their six-month-old baby - bore the brunt of the police operation. The infant was clobbered to death.
On the following morning, the families that were dispersed from Muthurwa slowly marched to Nation Centre as they protested against the killing.
However, the protest did not last long. A group of officers from Central Police Station dispersed the crowd, insisting that the matter was under Kamukunji.
On Tuesday, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) revealed that the family of 13-year-old Yassin Moyo, a Standard Eight pupil killed by police in March, had been facing threats and intimidation.
According to IPOA, the individuals threatening Yassin's family are proxies of Mr. Ndiwa, the police officer charged with shooting Yassin on the balcony of his family's house while enforcing a 7pm curfew.
Since Kenya started implementing measures to fight Covid-19 in March, police have killed at least 15 people and seriously injured another 31.
Demas Kiprono, Amnesty International's safety and dignity manager, says that the fight against police brutality is far from being won, but believes that prosecution has been a relatively successful tool in the past few years.
