extrajudicial killings - The African Mirror

Apr

2024

World Bank suspends Tanzania tourism fund over abuse allegations

THE World Bank has suspended new disbursements from a $150 million fund to expand a national park in southern Tanzania, a spokesperson said, after the lender received allegations of killings and evictions by rangers last year. Two anonymous complainants have accused rangers from the Ruaha National Park of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, evictions, torture and cattle seizures perpetrated against local villagers, according to the World Bank's independent complaints mechanism. "The World Bank is deeply concerned about the allegations of abuse and injustice related to the... project in Tanzania," a spokesperson said in a statement. "We have therefore decided to suspend…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

Kenya’s police are violent, unaccountable and make most citizens feel less safe – should they be abolished?

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

A world without the police is inconceivable to many people. The police are viewed as part of modern society’s foundation, ensuring democracy and keeping people safe. In practice, however, police around the world sometimes repress social movements, stifle democracy, and exacerbate social and racial injustice. Across the African continent, they often use force to prop up repressive regimes. And in Kenya in particular, extortion and extrajudicial killings by the police are rampant. Authors WANGUI KIMARI, Anthropologist, University of Cape Town ZOLTÁN GLÜCK, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, American University Kenya is unusual for its extensive attempts to reform the police. Reform…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Kenya: Police officers jailed for lawyer’s murder

NEWS

HUMPHREY MALALO A Kenyan court sentenced three police officers and their civilian informant to decades in prison for the 2016 murder of human rights lawyer Willie Kimani and two others. The case triggered outrage in Kenya, where police face frequent allegations of brutality and extrajudicial killings but are almost never charged. Kimani, his client Josephat Mwendwa and their driver, Joseph Muiruri, were killed shortly after filing a complaint of police brutality, alleging that Mwendwa had been shot and wounded by police. Their bodies were later recovered from a river outside the capital Nairobi. The four defendants were convicted of murder last year.…