The Independent Police Oversight Authority has bowed to public pressure and promised to investigate apparent police brutality against University of Nairobi students. Several students recorded police brutalizing their comrades on their phone cameras.
In widely shared footage, police are seen roaming ransacking campus grounds as they sought and mercilessly clobbered students. Most students who sustained grave injuries were not participants in the riots the police were seeking to quell.
In a press statement released early yesterday, IPOA noted:
IPOA this morning noted from social media reports of an incident in which members of the National Police Service allegedly stormed the University of Nairobi and assaulted students in the institution.
IPOA on its own motion has proceeded to dispatch its Rapid Response Unit to investigate the matter. IPOA will investigate the allegations of assault and any other misconduct against the Police Officers.
The Authority requests for information that can further investigation from any member of the public including students who were at any of the affected scenes to report to IPOA through the following means:
ACK Garden Annex 2nd Floor, 1st Ngong Avenue
Telephone: 020-4906000, 0792532626, 0773999000
Email: info@ipoa.go.ke, complaints@ipoa.go.ke
IPOA remains committed to being independent, impartial and fair in its mandate operations.
The statement was signed off by one Dennis Danson Oketch, head of communications and outreach department.
It remains to be seen if IPOA will remain impartial and objective in the investigations. This is in light of the government’s onslaught on independent institutions that do not favour Jubilee’s reelection agenda.
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Meanwhile University of Nairobi students expressed their displeasure with their Vice Chancellor’s perceived support of the police brutality on their campus. They condemned his administration and called for his resignation using the hashtag #MbithiMustGo
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