KENYA: Police brutality as colonial legacy

In Kenya, the antagonistic relationship that the police maintain with the public can be seen as a legacy of British rule: today’s security forces stand in continuity with colonial forces, their attitude and mission unchanged. On 8 June, 200 people peacefully marched through the Mathare informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, to protest against police brutality and the spike in extrajudicial killings that followed the establishment of a dusk-till-dawn pandemic curfew. A protester whose friend was shot dead by the police explained the rationale of the protest: ‘The police have killed us more than corona.’