\n More than 40 percent of Kenyans have experienced abuses of power at the hands of the country's under-fire police, while 69 percent reported witnessing misconduct, an international monitor said on Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n
\n The survey by the Washington-based International Justice Mission (IJM) covered a period between 2022 and 2024 -- before a wave of deadly youthful anti-government demonstrations, in which the police have been accused of using excessive force, began in June 2024.\n<\/p>\n
\n But abuse was rife even before those protests, which rights groups say left more than 100 people dead, the IJM survey of 5,700 people found.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The problem is entrenched within the system... (it) is rotten,\" Ayub Were, one of the lead authors of the IJM report, told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n Young Kenyans -- the section of society leading the recent protests -- were the most likely targets, according to the survey.\n<\/p>\n
\n One participant told the IJM that \"the police over here view the youth as criminals\".\n<\/p>\n
\n According to respondents, the most prevalent forms of police misconduct were corruption at 55 percent, followed by harassment at 54 percent.\n<\/p>\n
\n Thirteen percent of participants reported assaults causing \"non-serious injury\".\n<\/p>\n
\n The majority of victims did not report abuses due to a lack of faith in the authorities, the report found.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Nobody has faith' -\n<\/p>\n
\n In 2015 one respondent, named as Patrick, was detained and beaten by police after being falsely accused of possessing a homemade pistol.\n<\/p>\n
\n Though the charges were dropped after he eventually triumphed in court in 2019, Patrick said he could not face taking the officer to court.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I couldn't fight that system,\" the civil servant told AFP. \"Nobody has faith in the police.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n According to the report, Kenya's political elites exercise considerable influence over the country's police watchdog and the courts, leaving most participants with little trust in the justice system.\n<\/p>\n
\n Only seven officers were convicted between 2021 and 2024, a period in which 8,851 complaints were registered, the report said, citing official records.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The state is using the police to violate citizens,\" one respondent said.\n<\/p>\n
\n The IJM described the National Police Service (NPS) as \"notorious\", accusing it of disregard for human rights, unlawful arrests and unfair treatment.\n<\/p>\n
\n An NPS spokesperson rejected the report's findings and questioned the IJM's impartiality.\n<\/p>\n
\n The spokesperson told AFP that its officers do a \"fantastic\" job and that all complaints were properly investigated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than 40 percent of Kenyans have experienced abuses of power at the hands of the country's under-fire police, while 69 percent reported witnessing misconduct, an international monitor said on Tuesday. The survey by the Washington-based International Justice Mission (IJM) covered a period between 2022 and 2024 -- before a wave of deadly youthful anti-government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-149621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n