'Gun for hire': How Kenya’s police are being weaponised against dissenters

But after he was picked up from his home by police officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, he never came back. What followed was a tragic death in custody, a damning autopsy, and an eruption of public outcry.

Kenyan journalist Kioko Nyamasyo laid bare the grim realities of police violence in a country where he says, “the police are still in the colonial mentality... more, for lack of a better word, gun for hire.”

According to Nyamasyo, the police aren’t seen as protectors of public safety, but rather as tools of intimidation.

“If you are a minister, your cabinet secretary, you can order police around... So, you find in this political climate, police officers are now being used to intimidate opponents, and they can also be brought in to control the situation. And at the end of the day, they violate human rights,” he told Global South World.

Ojwang's arrest was reportedly linked to a post he made about the Deputy Inspector General of Police. “What happened is now, the Deputy Inspector General of Police made a complaint and police officers from the DCI went to take Ojwang from his home and to interrogate him.

Initial statements from authorities claimed Ojwang was taken to the hospital, and that's where he died.

An autopsy later confirmed Ojwang died while in police hands, and there were signs of head trauma, neck compression and bruises and lacerations across the body.

On June 25, widespread demonstrations rocked Kenya, and the police response was brutal.

“Normally, during protests, chaos will happen. Some shops will be broken into, tyres will be lit across the road, causing a traffic jam... So now, ideally and obviously, police must come in to contain the situation... But due to the nature of their training, their first reaction is to beat the people,” Nyamasyo said.

“The government has largely supported violence. The police are being used as a tool for power and control... The police department is under the Ministry of Interior, so it's directly under the presidency... It should be independent, but it's not.”

Reuters reported on July 9 that Kenya's President William Ruto said the police should shoot protesters who vandalise businesses in the leg to incapacitate them, two days after 31 people were killed during nationwide anti-government demonstrations.

He pointed out that opposition activists, bloggers, and dissenting voices are frequently arrested at the state’s direction. “So the police are just acting on orders of the government.”

Nyamasyo also highlighted a disturbing comment from Kenya’s Interior Minister: “The Minister for Interior Security said police should kill anyone who comes near the police post. But then he later retracted that and said, ‘No, I did not mean that. I meant that police should use any means to defend themselves.’ That's semantics.”

According to Nyamasyo, this pattern of abuse is not new and transcends political parties.

“In 2021, the current president, President William Ruto, was the deputy president, and he had a falling out... and former President Kenyatta used the police to intimidate his deputy. He even had his security withdrawn... He was kicked out by the same police.”

Ironically, when Ruto became president, the same tactics were allegedly used against his own deputy.

“It's easy when you are in a position to say, ‘This is bad.’ But now, when they get into power, they realise, ‘Oh, yeah, it's bad, but now it's working for me. Let me just continue.”

“You find, yeah, it's wrong, but really there's no law that you can prosecute them because they’re just acting wrong, but within the loopholes... For example, if you say a police officer, when his life is in danger, must do everything to protect himself, he's acting within the law. And then he shoots you. Then when he goes to court, he just says, ‘My life was in danger.’”