Father Daniel, The families of Willie
Kimani, Josephat Mwenda and Joseph Muiruri, friends, colleagues, ladies and
gentlemen.
I am honoured to stand before you and make
these brief remarks as we mark one year since the tragic murder of Willy,
Josephat and Joseph. I do so in three different capacities.
First, I speak to you on behalf of the
Kenyan Section of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ-K) whose Council
I am privileged to chair. Last December, during the International Human Rights
Day, the 600 members of ICJ-K elected Willy Kimani posthumously as the Jurist of
the Year for his immense contribution to justice, human rights and the rule of
law. Today I come here on behalf of the members, Council and Secretariat of
ICJ-K to join friends and family in honouring the memory and celebrating the
legacy of Willy, Josephat and Joseph, three soldiers for justice who chose
bravery over safety, who marched in front when comfort was in the midst of
ranks, who defied the logic of power that pretends that might makes right, and
who stood up for justice and paid the ultimate price.
Second, I speak to you as an ordinary
Kenyan addressing other ordinary Kenyans and friends of Kenya. The brutal
murder of Willy, Josephat and Joseph, while tragic, was not unique. It is a
just the tip of a very big iceberg. Its importance lay in calling national and
international attention to the daily reality that confronts young men in the
slums and informal settlements who are shot in cold blood and with impunity in
a reign of terror declared by the police. Over the last five years, thousands
of young men have been shot dead by the police without the benefit of due
process by simply being declared to be criminals. But their biggest crime
appears to be that they are all poor.
I am here to join in the chorus of rising
voices that are rising all over our country to condemn the systematic murder by
the police of our fellow citizens. We are all here to demonstrate that we care
about these young people and the families that they leave behind.
The 16th Century English poet
and clergyman John Donne once wrote in a poem, “Any man’s death diminishes me
because I am involved in mankind. So, never send to know for whom the death
tolls. It tolls for thee.” In like manner, any Kenyan’s death diminishes you
and me. There have been many bells tolling to announce the funerals of the
young men murdered by the police in cold blood. But we shall no longer send to
know for whom the bell tolls in Mathare, Korogocho and Dandora, for we know
that it tolls for us in Kilimani, Kileleshwa and Karen.
Any Kenyan’s death at the hands of the
police not only diminishes each one of us, it also implicates you and me, for
it is carried out in our name and using weapons paid for by our taxes. And so
we are here to join the chorus of rising voices to take a stand and declare
“Not in our name! Not any more!” We are here to demand that the police do their
work according to the law without abusing human rights in our name.
Third, I speak to you as a Christian, a
member of the Church of Christ in Kenya. And in that capacity, I stand here to
repent to God and to the families of the victims of these police killings for
the Church’s inaction in the face of this moral crisis of our time.
Martin Luther King Jr. once proclaimed that
our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
What could matter more than the plight of a
widow, already victimised by the violence of poverty and life in the slums,
losing her only son in a hail of police bullets?
What could matter more that the tragic
story of a young father being cruelly taken away from his little children and
young widow thereby condemning them to a life of destitution?
What could matter more than the story of a
deaf teenager caught rummaging for something to sell at the Dandora dumpsite on
20th April 2017? He could not here when the police called out to him
and they shot him in cold blood and declared him a criminal.
What could matter more that the story of
Ibrahim Mohammed and his cousin Lemin Abdalla, both 14 year old teenagers, who
left their homes to play football and never returned to their mothers?
What could matter more that the fact that a
young man caught with a gun in Karen is accorded the benefit of a full trial,
while a young man found eating chips in Mathare is shot in cold blood by the
police in unclear circumstances.
And what could matter more that the fact
that the citizenry and church members have become so desensitized that they
have become cheerleaders to this trigger-happy police force that has appointed
itself the judge, jury and executioner, killing our young people merely because
“they deserve to die.”
Over the last three weeks, NGO’s have
supported these communities in holding community dialogues to give the mothers,
brothers and sisters of these young men a platform to express their agony and
have stood in solidarity with them because they recognise that our lives begin
to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
And yet, the Church has largely remained
eloquent in its silence, conspicuous in its absence and even distinguished in
its indifference.
Jesus paid the ultimate price for our
salvation and our salvation was complete at the cross of Calvary when he
declared with his dying breath that it was finished. But he left us, his Church,
behind to do the work of justice. To go to the places where the fabric of
shalom has been raptured and there to be his agents in the ministry of healing.
We therefore cannot afford to remain silent and look the other way when God’s
children are being exterminated like cockroaches.
The Church must not only weep with those
who weep and bury the victims in private, it must take a stand and speak out in
public against this injustice of extra-judicial killings. It must also develop
and teach an empowering theology of humane policing that requires our police
service to secure our country without abusing our rights.
As individual Christians, in addition to
raising our voices in condemnation of this injustice, we must find the moral
courage to join the sweat of our brow to the tears of the bereaved and the
blood of the slain in the hope that they will together become the seeds of a
new Kenya where justice will truly be our shield and defender. Only then can we
assure ourselves and future generations that Willy Kimani, Josephat Mwenda and
Joseph Muiruri did not die in vain.
I thank you.
Consolata Shrine, Nairobi.
23 June 2017.
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