In Kenya, police's 'fabricated' charges are costly

More than a decade after being beaten for no reason by a local chief and then prosecuted on the basis of evidence fabricated by the police, two Kenyans have had the state ordered to pay them 1.9 million shillings (just over 13,000 euros) in damages. The case, the Daily Nation reported on May 11 , illustrates the many “missteps” of a notoriously corrupt police force, whose sometimes “fabricated” accusations cost “taxpayers millions.”

On March 6, 2013, Bernard Macharia and Isaac Nderitu went to the Bahati police station, near Nakuru, north of the capital, Nairobi, to report an assault. A man had attacked them in a shopping mall. The alleged attacker was a local chief. The police promised to take action, but nothing happened. Until one day, five months later, seven police officers entered Bernard Macharia's house, looking for weapons.

Two years later, the two men were arrested. They were accused of obstruction and perjury. In 2016, they were acquitted in a judgment citing a “fabricated” case. On March 5, 2025, the courts finally recognized their status as victims, finding that “the prosecution of the applicants was motivated by malice in order to protect the leader,” summarizes the Daily Nation .

In a case where his client was detained without reason for six hours, a lawyer also denounced “the systematic practice of extorting cash bail” at police stations. His client was awarded 100,000 shillings (about 690 euros) in damages.

As convictions mount, "the financial burden is falling on the state," the newspaper notes. In its 2023-2024 report, the Kenyan Human Rights Commission recorded 1,376 arbitrary arrests between June and November 2024. It also noted the emergence of a new phenomenon, in the wake of the massive protests that rocked the country in 2024: disappearances and kidnappings.

In June 2024, Kenyan youth rose up against the tax hike announced in a finance bill . Parliament was stormed, and Kenyan President William Ruto, stunned, abandoned the project after a few weeks. But police are accused of shooting protesters, and associations have denounced kidnappings. In its 2024 report, the Kenyan association Missing Voices recorded some thirty “enforced disappearances” between June and August 2024 and 104 extrajudicial executions that same year.

While these events are still causing a scandal in Kenya, President William Ruto assured on May 13 that all those who disappeared during the protests had been “returned to their families.” He also denies any kidnapping and promises that his regime “will not be like in the past, when Kenyans disappeared and their bodies were found in all sorts of places.”