Kenya's police "gun down more people than criminals do"

DPA
Jan. 23, 2007

Nairobi - Kenyan police are responsible for nearly three-quarters of the country's gunshot deaths, more than shooting deaths caused by criminals, the independent Daily Nation newspaper reported on Monday.

Kenya's police, underpaid and overworked, often take the law into their own hands, gunning down suspected thieves or criminals in Nairobi's crowded downtown streets.

"The police have resorted to rampant extra-judicial killings in their fight against crime," the Nation said.

On Saturday, 13 people were shot dead by police in separate incidents in Nairobi alone, according to the Nation.

A 2006 study by the former chief government pathologist said that during a span of seven years, Kenyan police were responsible for 70 per cent of shootings, the Nation reported. An earlier study released in 2002 put that number at 90 per cent.

Last week, police shot and killed six men in one of Nairobi's slums, claiming they were gang members. After a downtown bank was robbed late last year, police gunned down five suspected thieves in front of throngs of workers on their lunch break.

Nairobi, which has earned the nickname "Nairobbery", still has some of the highest crime rates in the world, despite a police crackdown on violence since the election of a new government in 2002.

© 2006 - dpa German Press Agency