President Ruto promises to end extrajudicial killings

President William Ruto has vowed to end extrajudicial killings by the police.

Speaking during a media roundtable interview on Wednesday, the president said that is an issue of the past since he took over power.

“Let me repeat for the avoidance of doubt, there will be no extrajudicial killings in the Government of Kenya, under my administration. I don’t think the Interior CS Kithure Kindiki or the IG of Police want to continue with extrajudicial killings. That is not our policy and we are all aligned as government,” said President Ruto on January 4 .

According to the Head of State, he has also tasked the police oversight authority to investigate the extrajudicial killings cases previously reported.

“We are going to respect and work with all institutions that make sure that the government works in the manner in which it is supposed to work. The IPOA has our support; we are going to fund them, we are going to support them.

I have told them that they must begin to give us a programme on the investigations on how we ended up with close to 200 people being killed and dumped in rivers,” he said.

He then said they have agreed with police bosses that they will operate within the law, which includes defending themselves.

“I have sat down with the commander of police from the IG downwards and we have agreed that they will operate within the law. They are licensed to use firearms to deal with criminals and defend themselves too. If they don’t defend themselves they won’t be there to sort out the criminals.”

He then revealed that he fired former Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti over extrajudicial killings, despite announcing on 27th of  September 2022 that Kinoti had resigned.

“13 bodies in Yala, 17 in Garissa, there was a container here at Nairobi area where people were being slaughtered, in a police station…how did we end up there? What kind of rogue institution was that? And that is why I fired that Kinoti man because it’s not right,” Ruto stated. 

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