Inspector General Japhet Koome on Tuesday broke silence over the anti-government protests which happened last month.
Speaking on Tuesday in Nyeri, he claimed that politicians hired bodies from the mortuary and claimed they were of people killed during the protests.
“It is so unfortunate that some senior members of the society go to the mortuary hiring dead bodies, calling the media and telling them that these people were killed by the police. How low can some of our leaders sink?’ Koome posed.
“The information I have is that they (politicians) go to some of the mortuaries compromise some of the workers there,” the IG said.
“People who died of some illness, people who died maybe of an accident or other causes, they (politicians) take photographs of such bodies and blame on police. But we are not in the business of all the time responding to politicians.”
This is the first time Koome is speaking on demos since they happened for three days last month.
Azimio leader Raila Odinga had claimed that at least 50 people have been killed since March when the opposition coalition announced the resumption of weekly mass protests against the government.
Activist Fred Ogolla has told International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan to keep away from Kenya political affairs.
Khan was in the country to receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Mount Kenya University.
His presence caused jitters, especially from Azimio la Umoja One Kenya side that claimed the ICC prosecutor would interfere with its planned case at The Hague. Azimio plans to take police to ICC over their handling of protests.
However, Khan has since clarified that he was in the country in his private capacity. “Please note that pursuant to Article 42.7 of the Rome Statute, Mr. Karim A.A.Khan KC, in his capacity as Prosecutor of the ICC, has recused himself from all Kenya cases before the ICC,” said Khan’s office in a statement.
Ogolla says Khan’s visit was in bad taste, coming at a time when police have heavily been criticized for using excessive force against protestors.
“We strongly believe that his visit to Kenya came at the wrong time and that it could compromise on-going investigations into police brutality and human rights abuses committed by several state officials,” noted the Operation Linda Ugatuzi leader.
Ogola alleged that Khan is not fit for the job due to his past history of associating with influential individuals linked to abuse of human rights.
“Over the years, he has been consistently aligned with powerful individuals accused of human rights abuses, thereby leaving victims to question his dedication to justice and accountability,’’ he said.
According to Ogolla, the Prosecutor’s visit was used as a scapegoat by the government to run away from being accountable.
“We are concerned that Mr Khan’s presence could be utilized to shield the Kenyan government from accountability for its alleged involvement in human rights violations. The victims of police brutality in Kenya deserve an unbiased and transparent process to seek justice, and we cannot afford any compromise in that pursuit,’’ he said.
Like Azimio, Operation Linda Ugatuzi plans to file a petition at the ICC over police brutality. “We shall be presenting a joint petition at the highest court seeking prayers from the court to demand that the government compensates all who were affected,” said Ogolla.
Ruto and his friends must have thought they were super smart to bring the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan to Kenya to get an honorary degree.
Effectively that could backfire bigly on Ruto. Karim Khan is not an idiot. He has responsibilities in one of the most powerful institutions in the world. He is not going to screw that up for Ruto even though he was his lawyer in Ruto’s previous appearance at the ICC for crimes against humanity that Ruto was accused of during the 2007/8 Post Election Violence. Khan will not risk his career for Ruto in this case if there is evidence of crimes that the ICC should take up in Kenya now.
The good news about the ICC cases for Kenya today is that people like Prof. Fred Ogola and the Azimio team have been collecting every piece of evidence of the Ruto crimes including hospital records, affidavits, and witness statements and they have all that data ready for the ICC. That is what really matters.
IG Koome can provide his evidence of “hired dead bodies” to the ICC and in fact, it is the statement from Koome that makes it mandatory for the ICC to investigate and prosecute the crimes being committed by President Ruto on Kenyans.
Already William Ruto is in a massive panic about the ICC cases and today Ruto signed an act to protect him and his terrorists from being taken to the ICC.
As long as Kenya remains a signatory to the ICC any phony laws signed by Ruto to protect him from the ICC are useless. Even Putin cannot sign any laws in Russia to protect him from ICC warrants. He has to lock himself in Russia and never leave the country. If Ruto wants Kenya to remove Kenya from the ICC he will need a complete change of the Kenya constitution complete with a referendum.
Ruto knows he cannot do that. It is now obvious why Ruto tried to bring Karim Khan in as saviour. It is not happening this time. Karim Khan knows his job is not to protect anybody and he is not some broke chap who needs Ruto’s money.
The panic by Ruto passing laws to protect himself just tells the whole world that he knows he is committing crimes against humanity in Kenya right now. Kenyans and the international community are going to deal with that very decisively. Ruto has to stop killing Kenyans instead of signing laws to help him kill Kenyans with impunity.
