I recently interacted with a policeman who was hurt in the line of duty.

He had a healing cut on his hand which looked like it was originally quite deep. and some other cuts on his hands. So i asked him how he got the injuries. He said he held a knife that was being aimed at him close range.

The thug was eventually arrested and put in, or so he thought..until he saw the same thug a few days later on the streets. The thug did not even bother to run.

He asked me a question which i have been unable to put out of my head. To paraphrase 'Mkiona mtu ameuwawa na polisi, hakuna mtu anauliza ni nini iliendelea. Mnasema tu tunapenda risasi. Mkijua yale tunapatana nayo hamwezi ongea'

He said, some of the perennial thugs we see are people they have arrested before. As he spoke, he sounded so bitter about how we talk about 'human rights' 'lakini ni kama polisi si binadamu'

Next time you hear a story regarding the police, please remember to spare a thought for the policeman's side of the story...

This is too true, I just could not put the topic here coz I thought I will be bashed by some wazuans to death....I have a close friend who works with flying squad and he was attacked as he went to his house at parklands... for those who have memory it was all in the papers. This guy told me he knows the guys and he had arrested them not once. For now all he is doing his healing. He is not sure he will ever be able to go chase thieves again, but am sure if he meets those guys its only a bulletthat will work. Whenever he talks he is at pains to explain why he never finished the bastards at first. These guys I always pity them and feel for them to work in an environment full of guns at the wrong hands

A quick reminder, Ali is on his way to the hague...

@MsKenya, this testimony is very touching. Equally touching is a story of policemen meting "justice" thier way to someone I know sample this: Sometime in December, 2007 within Malindi District a well known childhood friend and popular footballer (Koki) was gunned down together with 3 other people (one of them a std 7 pupil- brother to Koki's girlfriend) while ridding on a tuktuk that Koki was piloting. The flying squad guys had a tip off that there was a gang of four people riding in a tuktuk. For those who have been to this town, the number of tuktuks is just crazy. Koki and company were shot from the back after being ordered to lay down even the pupil in uniform! A G3 gun was placed next to their bleeding bodies. The hour was around 11am in broad day light within Kisumu Ndogo area next to a building that was under construction (the fundis atop the building witnessed all the action). One of the fundis was later found shot dead in the Sabaki area when things got thick for the policemen.

There were serious demonstrations in the town for weeks. We could not bring back these guys to life. King'ori Mwangi was booed when he tried to justify the incident. By the way Koki's home is only 20 meters from the Malindi police station and almost all the cops knew him very well. (They have a cafe where these officers frequent for lunch etc). I could not believe it when I viewed the body before burial, the bullet had shattered/almost severed his head from the neck.

The story of seeking justice for his family is another sad one . My point:- as Sparkly put it, these guys are well equipped, armed and highly trained in use of weapons. Then the force of the law is always on their side. Just like any other job part of it involves occupational hazards, which are unfortunate and regrettable. The right thing to do is to reform not only the police force but the entire criminal justice system, especially our rotten judiciary.

Having said that we must also remember that Kenya is fast turning out to be an activist/lobbyist state where the noise levels get higher on things that don't really need to be amplified. Remember NGO noise on the military operation in Mt. Elgon? Remember Alston on Mungiki operations?

when a thug shows such overt "you cant touch me" attitude to a policeman, be very very afraid....

these are usually protected by higher up authorities .....

thats why its important to clean up the force before anything else!!!!

it is very very disheartening and frustrating trying to do right when your own colleagues are working with the enemy....even worse when you are killed by a thug whose gun he borrowed from your own colleagues!!!!

CLEAN IT UP PLEASE!!!!

However as much as the policemen are people too it's them that encourage the thieves when they are arrested they always pay for their way out so when you have been eating with them then you turn your back what do you expect police reforms is the way to go all the senior officers should be given some golden hand shake and then let to go home.
We need a new police force

That is the KNH staffer's point of view..And it assumes that she/he was not a thief.. and that they did not try to shoot at the police..Did anyone tell you the policeman's view??

All i was saying in this thread is, give the policeman's view a thought/hearing. Sometimes, maybe more often than we care, they may be justified in what they do. And just for the record, i am not a cop!

they were not armed.

Amen to that @ alma.