Triumphs

(1)
Three hours after I rolled out the Direct Action Campaign (aka Three Deliciously Naughty Things) yesterday, Prime Minister Raila Odinga encountered Ann Njogu (human rights lawyer/activist who was beaten and sexually assaulted by police on July 8th) at the office of a foreign ambassador. He said:

Ann, I didn't know what had happened - I just learned by sms (text message)!

Scepticism at his "ignorance" aside, this rocks. It's a three-hour turnaround on our direct action strategy, after weeks of ploughing through the mire of the police and court systems. Just yesterday morning, at Nairobi's Central Police Station, my colleagues were pushed around from office to office, encountered repeated stonewalling, and flat-out refusal by the officer in charge to accept and file their official complaint of police violence. After several hours, they had no option but to leave, complaint unfiled.

Odinga asked Ann Njogu to deliver the civil society Memorandum on Police Violence to his office, where she was cordially received. We're asking him for a face-to-face meeting with civil society, for a serious discussion on escalating police violence, and his responsibility to stop it.

(2)
The court hearing in Kibera on Tuesday, of Ann Njogu and Others vs. Republic of Kenya, was attended by Officer Richard Mugwai, the senior police officer who sexually assaulted Ann Njogu and led the beating of all seven activists on July 8th. After the hearing, Mugwai beckoned over Okiya Omtatah Okoiti, one of the 7 activists (whose face is still marked from Mugwai's violent attack), and said:

Please do not deal with me as an individual. Please deal with the police force.

This tells us that our strategy of naming individual police officers who violate human rights, and holding them directly accountable, is definitely finding its mark. It will have a ripple effect throughout the Police Force.

It is vital that we sustain the momentum begun by the Three Deliciously Naughty Things. It is encouraging to know that our message has got through to at least one key office-holder, Raila Odinga. Now we need to keep up the flow of messages, through all channels, until the criminal violations committed are actually redressed, and the culture of police impunity and state violence is dismantled.