Dan Otieno and Walter Menya
12 August 2008
Nairobi — Police officers in Kisumu were ordered to use live ammunition to quell post- election violence, the Waki Commission heard on Tuesday.
The officers were directed by their seniors to use live bullets to control rioters who were destroying property and threatening others with death, former Migori OCPD Edward Mwamburi and police bosses Simon Kiragu (Kisumu) and Jimmmy Munene (Homa Bay) said.
They were testifying before the commission during its second day in Kisumu.
Mr Kiragu said the magnitude of the violence overwhelmed the police so they resorted to use live bullets under his instruction.
But Mr Munene told the commission that his junior officers disobeyed his orders by shooting directly into the rioters, leading to the death of three people in Homa Bay Town.
Shoot in the air
He said he had clearly ordered his juniors to only shoot in the air. The instructions were given to the officers at all briefing sessions.
He was, however, taken to task to explain why he had taken no disciplinary action against the officers who shot directly at mobs.
According to Mr Kiragu, 48 rioters were killed in the period between the announcement of the presidential election results and the naming of the Grand Coalition Government.
However, he could not give the number of people wounded by bullets.
Other than the police officer who was caught on camera shooting unarmed demonstrators, Mr Kiragu said the police had not set up any internal mechanism to investigate others who could have abused the firearms.
He told the Waki commission that several properties and premises belonging to the Government were either looted or burnt as rioters protested against the outcome of the presidential election results.
According to him, the protesters moved from one street to the other in huge crowds.
"We could not make it without live fire. I instructed the officers that they can use the firearms as authorised by the law regarding the quelling of riots," said Mr Kiragu.
The Kisumu police boss was due to be cross-examined in the afternoon by various lawyers.
Kisumu is one of the areas that bore the brunt of the violence, and there have been conflicting reports about the number of people felled by police bullets.
Mr Kiragu said that despite the shootings, rioters still went out onto the streets daily until an all inclusive government was formed.
During the violence, the Government was under pressure to protect fuel and other cargo headed to Uganda and in some instances police had to shoot people who had barricaded roads.
Both Mr Mwamburi and Mr Mnene said that the use of live ammunition was not meant to kill protesters but to scare them away.
"We had an operation order that was mainly precautionary to guard vital installations in our areas of jurisdictions in anticipation of any eventuality," Mr Mwamburi told the commission.
And for the second day, the commission was told that there was no evidence that the violence that rocked Nyanza was not pre-planned.
According to witnesses, the protests occurred spontaneously.
The mobs were following events from other places through the electronic and print media and mobile phones before pouring into the streets, Mr Mwamburi told the commission.
The commission also heard that 50 police officers were transferred from Homabay between 2006 and 2007 and replaced by those from one community thus raising suspicions that the violence was anticipated.
The Waki commission winds up its hearing in Kisumu today before moving on to Kisii.
Mr Kiragu also said that the public mistook the Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU) forces for Ugandan security operatives.
According to him, 50 members of the force had been deployed in Kisumu to back up the regular and Administration Police officers who had been overwhelmed by the rioters.
Although the force had been accused of having used excess force, Mr Kiragu said such moves were justified under the prevailing circumstances.
The unit was initially supposed to be under his command but they took orders from their supervisor who had accompanied them. Officers from the unit did not integrate with those from the other arms.
At the height of the post election violence, there were rumours in Nyanza that army officers from Uganda had been used to back up the Kenyan police force. Both Kenya and Uganda denied the claims at the time.
On Tuesday, Mr Justice Waki ordered Mr Kiragu to furnish the commission with an inventory showing the movement of the arms and bullets during the post election violence.
The order came after Mr Richard Onsongo representing the Law Society of Kenya said that the Mr Kiragu had been reluctant to investigate how the officers used their fire arms.
Mr Kiragu had told the commission that he did not know or try to find out how many people were actually shot by the police and that his only contact with the hospital was when he led a delegation of government officers to assess how the institutions was coping with the crisis.
Wednesday, August 13, is the last day for the Waki commission to hold its hearings in Kisumu before moving on to Kisii.
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