Pretty Intense Stuff Going on in Kenya
“Most troubling is the existence of police death squads operating on the orders of senior police officials and charged with eliminating suspected leaders and members of criminal organizations.”
Yeah, I’d say that’s pretty troubling. According to this CNN article, the UN completed its investigation into security forces of Kenya. The investigator:
accused government security forces of torturing and killing hundreds of men in a March 2008 crackdown on a militia.
Easy Kenya! Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki of course denied it and questioned the validity of the report and the methods of its investigations. Frankly, I’m shocked that a UN investigator actually found anything. I also question their methods, but usually its because they never find anything.
I do agree with the President on one thing (and after this I’ll need to take a shower): the suggestion by the investigator that the police chief and attorney general should be replaced. I’m all for saying that things need to change, but I don’t think that it’s the place of the UN to determine who should be appointed to (or removed from) specific offices. I agree that it’s an encroachment on the sovereignty of Kenya.
To be fair, it’s the investigator’s suggestion, not the suggestion of the UN, so we can wait to see how the governing body reacts to the report. I predict a strongly (eh) worded statement condemning the killings and a subtle suggestions that if a few hundred more people are killed in this manner, then they will convene a special investigatory COMMISSION(!) to look into it further. And they won’t be kidding around, either. They’ll form that committee. Unless some of the members are also serving on the committees for Darfur. Oh, yeah, unless that happens.
