Kenya police's 'death squads' exposed

There are particularly concerning reports emerging today of the Kenyan army being accused of torture and murder of civilians.  The UN Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial Executions’s report also revealed that Kenyan police chief has ordered the killings of suspects with death squads. 

The UN’s top official investigating these crimes, Philip Alston, has called for the sacking of the country’s chief of police and attorney general.  These are hugely worrying allegations and the Kenyan government has to take these extremely seriously.

Human rights organisations have been alarmed for a long time about the number of unlawful killings that have taken place. Amnesty actually flagged up these concerns in December 2007, noting that even though local and international civil society organisations had asked the Kenyan government to investigate these killings, they were ignored.

Well, now that a global spotlight has been thrown on these dreadful abuses, the Kenyan authorities can’t sweep them under the carpet any longer. Let’s hope that the the Kenyan authorities clean up the military and security forces and act swiftly on Philip Alston’s findings.