To End Torture, Let’s Stop Lynch Mobs Too

Gabriel Dolan

24 June 2011

opinion

Nairobi — Tomorrow we celebrate International Day in support of Victims of Torture. The day first received global recognition in 1997 following a Danish proposal to the United Nations.

While it would appear to be a minor event in the UN calendar, it is always marked with passion by the human rights community in Kenya.

That is hardly surprising when we consider the frequency of extrajudicial killings, the torture and degrading treatment meted out in our detention centres and the horrific suffering endured by thousands of victims of the post-election violence.

Torture is not a new phenomenon in Kenya but its patterns have changed over the past decades.

Twenty years ago, extrajudicial killings were generally committed by reckless, sadistic individual officers operating in remote outposts.

Today, we have special death squads within the police force responsible for eliminating criminal gangs mostly in urban centres.

Their death programmes were revealed by UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Philip Alston during his 2009 visit.

He confirmed what the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) had earlier described in their “Cry of Blood” research.

The presence of extortion gangs within the special crime prevention units has also frequently been highlighted by the Independent Medico-Legal Unit (Imlu), a non-governmental organisation that seeks a torture-free society by promoting the rights of torture victims.

However, the typical response from the police to these very serious allegations is to lie and deny.

Humans are the only creatures who kill and torture for amusement and the growing tolerance and acceptability of public acts of violence is very disturbing. Mob justice has become so common that it probably results in more extrajudicial killings than those committed by law enforcement officers.

Lynching is now perceived by many as a legitimate and acceptable practice although it shows utter contempt for the rights of an accused person as guaranteed in the Constitution. It is also a crime that must not be trivialised and can never be justified. Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it, as Tolstoy once said.

Police are frequently reported as saving suspects from mob justice killings. Yet, that is hardly adequate. When will police take a further step and apprehend citizens who viciously beat and kill suspects?

I have not heard of a single case of wananchi being charged with beating, necklacing or hacking to death a suspect.

Public lynching is the next step in the cycle of violence instigated by police who have been torturing and killing suspects with impunity for half a century.

The public are just imitating the police’s behaviour but consequently we all live in a very dangerous, lawless society and have become entangled in endless cycles of violence and impunity. This has to be addressed immediately by all of us.

Life, after all, is the most sacred and basic of rights and we have to protect it by every means.

This week the Justice minister released the Prevention of Torture Bill, 2011. This new piece of legislation could go a long way towards abolition of torture and the recovery of our humanity.

Yet it will need to be complemented by a massive public awareness campaign to restore confidence in the police and transform public attitudes about mob justice. That is the challenge in the change we have been demanding.

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