Senator Haji slams double standards in Senate’s response to killings

Garissa Senator Abdul Haji has raised concerns over what he termed as unequal treatment of Kenyans when it comes to police brutality and extrajudicial killings, questioning why some deaths attract swift national attention while others are ignored.

Speaking during a special Senate sitting on Wednesday, convened to hear details surrounding the death of blogger Albert Ojwang, Haji said similar attention was not being paid to cases involving ordinary citizens from other parts of the country.

"In no way am I trying to disrespect this very sitting today, but I would love to see some level of fairness in this country. I would like to see that the case of any Kenyan from anywhere is important," he expressed.

Haji questioned why special sittings were not called when 40 fishermen from Turkana were reportedly killed and dumped in a lake, a matter that was recently brought to the Senate by the area representative.

"Last week, the Senator of Turkana stood on the floor of this House with a statement enquiring about the death of 40 fishermen who were killed and left in the lake, and not a single senator requested a special sitting," Haji said.

"Not even this country demanded answers about the death of those individuals...It begs the question: are there some Kenyans who are more important than others?"

He also cited cases in his own county, Garissa, where investigations into mysterious deaths have stalled, and no effort has been made to pursue justice.

"I would like to beg this House: I have a case of six youths in Garissa who were brutally murdered on the road, and to this day, we do not know who killed them," he remarked.

"We have not heard from the human rights organizations, not the media houses, not even the civil societies, none have pursued justice for them. If this continues, some senators will feel disconnected from the rest of the country."

Despite his frustrations, the senator backed calls to get answers in Ojwang’s case, especially on whether the blogger was alive when police moved him from Central Police Station to Mbagathi Hospital, where he was declared dead.

He also raised fresh questions about the use of surveillance in police stations, particularly the reliability of CCTV systems meant to protect those in custody.

"I would also like to ask IPOA: how many of our police stations have CCTV cameras, and how many of those are installed within the cells? Were the CCTV cameras working even before IPOA concluded they had been interfered with?" he posed.