Security bosses nowhere to be seen as Masinde goes in the dock alone

When Senior Principal Magistrate Ben Mark uttered the words that would change Klinzy Barasa Masinde’s life, “you will face murder charges,” the police officer lowered his head and cried.

Masinde, a police officer deployed to quell protests on June 17, is now a suspect in the murder of 22-year-old Boniface Kariuki, a mask vendor shot point-blank in the head during the protests that engulfed parts of Nairobi.

Kariuki fell to the ground and slipped into a coma after suffering a fatal brain injury.

He died 12 days later in the Intensive Care Unit at Kenyatta National Hospital. His dreams and struggles were erased by a single bullet.

But in that courtroom on Thursday, as the charges quickly changed to murder, Masinde stood alone. Dejected.

His commanding officer was absent. Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, who had assured the police of unwavering support—even promising that the government would stand by officers shooting “rioters”—was nowhere to be seen.

Masinde’s fellow officer, Duncan Kiprono, who had helped him assault Kariuki as captured in the viral video, was released on the same day the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) approved murder charges against him. The DPP said no murder charges would be preferred against Kiprono. Even the uniform Masinde once wore with pride could not protect him anymore.

The two officers were interdicted after being captured on video assaulting Kariuki.

Immediately after the charges were approved by the DPP, the investigating officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigation rushed him through the court corridors in Milimani to present him before High Court judge Kanyi Kimondo few metres from the magistrate’s court.

In under half an hour, the case had escalated.

Justice Kimondo ordered a mental health assessment before Masinde could take a plea.

It was a chilling scene that was not supposed to happen if the officer had acted within the confines of the law and the National Police Service Standing Orders.

On Wednesday, President William Ruto directed police officers to shoot rioters and looters on the legs, weeks after his Interior CS, Murkomen, told police officers to shoot to kill any individual threatening an officer of a police station during riots.

But in court, there was no mention of such instructions. No hint of the political fire that had fanned the flame of violence. Only one man was on trial. Just like Masinde, other officers, including suspended Nairobi Central Police Station OCS Samson Talam and James Mukhwana, who were charged in connection with the death of Albert Ojwang, who died in police custody, are facing the law alone.

They will go through the rigours of defending themselves using their resource: They have to hire lawyers and live with the consequences once the matter is concluded.

Ojwang died in police custody after being arrested for criticising Deputy Inspector General of Police Eliud Lagat online.

In the shadow of the growing protests against government, police brutality, corruption and bad governance, President Ruto and his political supporters have seemingly given police officers the freedom to crush dissent by all means.

“Those who attack our police men and women, those who attack police stations, that is a declaration of war, that is terrorism. We are going to deal with you firmly. We cannot have a nation that is run by terror. We cannot have a nation that is governed by violence,” Ruto said in Nairobi on Wednesday.

“They (police) shouldn’t kill them, but they should shoot their legs and break them, and they can go to the hospital on their way to court,” announced the president.

Eric Mukoya, the Executive Director of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), termed the order “unconstitutional, unsteady and unpresidential”, calling on police officers to act within the law.

“The development that has happened in the courtroom should be a wake-up call for our police officers. They should know that in law, there are three levels of accountability,” he said.

“But the highest level of accountability lies with them to take what is good or bad, to resist what is wrong and only do what is right,” Mukoya added.

He stated that despite the fact that Masinde was under command to go and quell riots, that command did not take away his capacity to decide what was wrong and what was right.

“We want to remind the President and his people that every kind of command comes with responsibility. And that responsibility includes you being accountable for the commands that you give,” he said.

Mukoya went on: “So while the minister promised police officers that he would protect them, he would stand by them in court, Masinde stands on his own. And unfortunately, when he walked into court, he was weeping. The reality that he is alone.”

Masinde’s tears may have been those of a man who realised too late that the same system that armed him, emboldened him and perhaps even encouraged him to shoot, would vanish when accountability came knocking.

A day after the president’s “shoot to cripple” declaration, Belgut MP Nelson Koech said, in a public forum, that police should instead shoot and kill looters, arsonists and rioters.

Speaking in Chebirbei, Kericho County on Wednesday, Koech defended President Ruto’s order on police officers to shoot at the legs of looters, stating that it should instead be “shoot to kill”.

“I want to thank President William Ruto for saying on Thursday, shoot but do not kill. I want to repeat it here. Shoot and kill. You cannot have someone coming after your life, and you do not want to shoot and kill.

“You cannot have someone who is going to terrorise you and your family, and you are telling me you cannot shoot and kill. You cannot have someone who is coming after your businesses armed and with weapons, and you want to tell me that you cannot use shoot and kill,” said the legislator.

Law Society of Kenya President Faith Odhiambo criticised recent statements by political leaders urging police to shoot protesters, stating that such “roadside pronouncements” hold no force of law and warned that any officer who heeds them will face full legal consequences.

Odhiambo emphasised that both the Constitution and the National Police Service Act provide clear safeguards on the use of force, especially live ammunition.

“If any police officer takes the cue and decides to shoot and kill individuals who are peacefully protesting, they shall be held accountable by the law. The courts have pronounced themselves time and again on this,” said Odhiambo.

“I would advise the police officers to obey the law, to act within the confines of the constitution and defend the rule of law, and the law will stand on their side,” she added.

The LSK President called for sobriety, unity, and a national conversation that prioritises justice and healing over fear and repression.

“Do not tell people to be shot because at the end of the day, if you find that the police made a mistake and they shot that person, how do you return the life of that person? “she posed.

Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro said the government should bear responsibility for the mayhem caused during the Saba Saba protests on Monday, July 25.

 “I have been observing the speeches and the demeanour of the people in government around these issues…Whatever happened on Monday, the government must bear all the responsibilities for the business burnt and all the lives lost,” Nyoro stated.

“The people who are supposed to protect us are the ones killing the people.”

The MP stated that the government spends more than Sh200 billion on security, asking if the government had intelligence on the planned mayhem.

“Was there intelligence that there was mayhem to be meted out against the people of Kenya? If there was no intelligence, I want to remind them that taxpayers are giving the government Sh50 billion for intelligence gathering alone,” said Nyoro.

He added: “If they did not know of such, they have no business calling them government.”