SUMMARY
The Government of Kenya was active as a one-sided actor due killings of civilians by the police, the army and by special security forces. There were three basic trends of violence against civilians: first, by reacting to demonstrations with extreme violence; second, notorious misuse of force by members of the police and third, the government’s activities in the Mount Elgon conflict.
The first string of action is one-sided violence as a reaction to demonstrations. This type of violence was particularly prominent in the aftermath of the December 2007 general elections in Kenya. Both, the running up to and the aftermath of these elections were clouded by political and ethnic violence as well as by allegations of fraud. As a consequence, in January 2008, Kenya faced a series of demonstrations, which were met with extreme police brutality. Police were shooting randomly at civilians during peaceful demonstrations, while on other occasions targeted executions of individual demonstrators took place. This brutality was said to be part of a policy to hit the demonstrators hard so that they would not continue their protests. Overall, the Kenyan national commission of inquiry, chaired by Justice Waki, estimates that over 1100 people died in post-election violence and that the police are responsible for 405 of these deaths. Yet, these numbers cover diverse clashes between supporters of candidates, between ethnic groups, as well as state responses to such violence and to violent demonstrations.
The second string of one-sided violence carried out by the Government of Kenya relates to the misuse of force by the police. It appears to be normal behavior for some members of the police forces, notably of special squads, to abduct civilians in order to blackmail the payment of ransom. In order to avoid witnesses and as a result of non-payment of the ransoms, killings occur frequently in such actions. In addition, there are incidents of random use of force and deliberate targeting of civilians as a mean to pressure parts of the population suspected to cooperate with criminals.
The third type of one-sided violence carried out by the Government of Kenya is linked to the Mount Elgon conflict. In March 2008, the government initiated a counter-insurgency operation against the Sabaot Land Defence Forces (SLDF) which led to killing of many civilians. It was part of the government’s strategy to "screen" all civilians in SLDF-areas for possible adherence to and/or support for SLDF. In the course of these screenings, extreme violence, torture and killing occurred frequently.
The Government of Kenya first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 2007, when the one-sided violence resulted in at least 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in mid-August that year when government troops killed 7 civilians and dumped their bodies in the Athi River.
