Activist Boniface Mwangi has been arrested while holding a peaceful demo in Nairobi. Yesterday,he shared this message via his Facebook page:
“Human rights are not things that are put on the table for people to enjoy. These are things you fight for and then you protect.”
― Wangari Maathai
We need to speak out with one voice of love. The same voice that we spoke with when 42 Police officers were massacred in Baragoi, Samburu. The voice that cried out when 28 people were shot at point-blank range by Al Shabaab militants in Mandera. The voice that rang out, loud and clear, when terrorists attacked the Garissa University College in Garissa, killing 147 people. WE STOOD UP THEN TO BE COUNTED. WE MUST STAND UP NOW.
As a country we need to know that WE are the government and, as such, we cannot allow the continued unlawful killing of fellow citizens by the police.
There is a very damning report by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch titled, “Kill Those Criminals” Security Forces Violations in Kenya’s August 2017. The report states that the national death count, based on post-election violence since the announcement of the August 8th elections, stands at 67. The majority of the casualties, including children, were shot dead. Since the August elections, people have been killed mostly by police for taking part in protests and others have lost their lives while going about their business. 67 people are dead because of an election. One life alone is too much.
Article 37 of the Kenyan Constitution guarantees every person the right “peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket…” Anyone thinking that there is any justification in killing unarmed citizens is a fool. When you side with perpetrators of violence, you’re setting yourself up to become their next victim someday. It is the work of the police to arrest law breakers, not to shoot them dead. We cannot allow victims of police brutality to go unnoticed. We see. We know. We are dying and we have to fight for our survival and to stand with the families of the bereaved.
We MUST do something for the victims of police brutality. Tomorrow, the 19th of October, 11am, we shall march to the offices of the Inspector General of Police and the Interior Minister to say, with one voice, STOP KILLING US! https://www.facebook.com/events/303116880171281/
