The police can't be shooting unarmed people in cars

What you need to know:

  • After Wizkid’s concert on Saturday, my cousin was walking out of KICC when he noticed an altercation.
  • He says it casually, like words that roll off his tongue often that he isn’t afraid to back up in the absence of a camera.
  • The policeman, who denies shooting the woman, has apparently recorded a statement, and relevant parties are meeting with IPOA to discuss this travesty.

The irony of this is that I had so many things to write about last week.

I wanted to talk about the ridiculousness going around my timeline when the two men who robbed and raped and violated a woman with foreign objects three years ago were sentenced to death.

Men were up in arms, saying silly things like it isn’t that serious and the crime isn’t commensurate to the punishment – all sorts of privilege-laden patriarchy-assisted trollop that should not be given the time of day before what I am about to write about.

Then I thought I was going to write about cholera, and how the whole nation just needs to stick to shaking hands with each other until the 300 plus cases of cholera are contained and listed and dealt with.

How so terrible that in 2017, diseases we’ve known about since 2014 to have regular outbreaks are still killing Kenyans, and we only pay attention when they leave so called ‘slumurbia’ and get to Karen and Weston Hotel.

How silly it is that no one is really delving into waste water management and sanitation in direct relation to cholera and its spread over the last few years.

But even that took a back seat. After Wizkid’s concert on Saturday, my cousin was walking out of KICC when he noticed an altercation.

Upon approaching the scene, he says he saw a policeman shoot someone in the front seat of a car. Shocked, he ran to video the now-fleeing officer to make sure he recorded a statement, or at least get his badge number or at least get his face on video.

This officer immediately turned defensive, he says, going as far as to tell my cousin that he would kill him. I, of course, was not there.

I don’t know what happened before or after the video was shot. All I have is the actual video. He chases the policeman with his friends, agitated, and even more so when the policeman threatens to kill him, saying, ‘Nitakuua.’

He says it casually, like words that roll off his tongue often that he isn’t afraid to back up in the absence of a camera.

The policeman has denied shooting the woman. He says in a report that a motorist who confronted him grabbed his gun by the muzzle and extended his hand to the trigger, firing the weapon. The police say they are investigating

We’ve all seen video of police shooting people with in broad daylight, in the middle of busy city streets and nothing happens to them. We’ve seen clips of what police were actually doing during the Westgate Mall attack. Commissions were formed and nothing happened to them.

HERCULEAN EFFORT

This is what makes policemen you meet in the street so comfortable with letting those threatening words pass through their lips – the fact that they know they can and no one will stop them. My cousin was then arrested and taken to the station, charged with nothing and given back his phone with a deleted gallery.

The policeman, who denies shooting the woman, has apparently recorded a statement, and relevant parties are meeting with Independent Police Oversight Authority (Ipoa) to discuss this travesty. I’m interested to see how this will go, first, because I’m personally invested, and also because this case sounds like so many others.

There is plenty of evidence on police brutality in the past, as well as at this particular event. I want to see what the police will do, whether or not they will make a Herculean effort to protect their own against the people they are supposed to be protecting.

I am waiting to see if Ipoa will actually come through and present a case that will result in justice for everyone, including the woman who was shot, because Utumishi Kwa Wote (Service to All) is better served when an officer isn’t felling college students left and right.

WITNESSES AND FRIENDS

But as I wait, and in these precarious times, these are some things you have to remember. One, the difference between life and death can be very small. Two, it is exceedingly important to build a chain of evidence in case a policeman is harassing you.

First record everything you possibly can, whether audio or video. If they arrest you, send the videos or record them on platforms like Facebook Live so that they can’t delete them.

Remove your memory card if you can before they take your phone to do the inevitable.

Call Ipoa if something happens to you as soon as you can. Make sure there are witnesses and friends who know where you are and who took you as soon as you are going.

Create a disturbance if something is going on so that there are more eye witnesses and more people who can come forward to your defence. Get badge numbers of policemen who speak to you or harass you. Stay focused enough to take down details that will be important in the future.

Isn’t it unfortunate that I am having to share tips on how to act when a policeman attacks you, and telling how you, as a victim, you can make sure you’re a little safer? Now there’s a title for a blog.

Twitter: @AbigailArunga