This archive report was first published on 3 July 2019.
Between August 2018 and June 2019, police in Nairobi allegedly killed 21 men and boys, sparking widespread condemnation.
According to a report by Human Rights Watch, released on July 3, 2019, the victims were from low-income areas in Nairobi and were killed without justification, with the police claiming they were criminals.
The report, titled Nairobi Police Executing Suspects, highlights the extrajudicial killings as a broader problem of police using excessive and unlawful force in Nairobi's informal settlements.
Human rights activists in the affected neighborhoods have reported many more cases of police brutality, with some victims being unarmed and shot dead by police.
“Police are arresting unarmed people and then gunning them down, and neither the police service nor its watchdog agency is doing much to stop it,” said Otsieno Namwaya, Africa Researcher at Human Rights Watch.
The report also mentions specific cases of killings, including the death of Kevin Gitau, 25, who was shot dead by police on April 14, 2019, despite being due to travel out of the country for a job offer.
