{UAH} Kenya's serious "Ferguson" problem

Folks;

As Americans in Ferguson, MO, bury the black teenager killed by a white police officer two weeks ago, Kenyan police is facing its own Ferguson problem with the killing of a 14-year old girl in her own house and in front of her siblings!

Pojim

By Ngumbao Kithi

KWALE COUNTY: The brutal slaying of a 14 year-old girl has sparked massive outrage in Kwale and put the National Police Service on the spot.

Kwekwe Mwandaza, whose first name is ironically similar to a special police unit now dismantled that was accused of extra judicial killings, was felled by bullets when eight policemen stormed her family's home in Kinango, Kwale County.

Authorities bowed to mounting public outrage to announce they had opened investigations into the murder of the minor shot by eight policemen during a raid on their home in Kinango, Kwale County.

The Independent Policing Oversight Authority ( IPOA) opened an investigation into the Friday shooting and announced that its officials recovered two live bullets and a spent cartridge from the scene.

"We have launched a preliminary investigation into the matter and we have recovered two bullets and one spent bullet casing," Gladys Some, a spokeswoman for IPOA, told The Standard last evening.

But police were yesterday still clinging to the theory that Kwekwe Mwandaza was killed when she attacked the policemen with a panga (machete). Officials appeared to suggest the officers killed her in self defence, allegedly because she was obstructing them from arresting her uncle George Zani who they allege is a murder suspect.

But Kwekwe's two cousins who claimed they were in the house when the incident occurred, contradicted the police version of events, reporting that the officers burst into their house at night after breaking their door.

Mgandi George, 8, and Luvuno George, 7, said the police then lobbed teargas into the house and as the family choked in the fumes opened fire. Kwekwe, a class six pupil, died on the spot. Mgandi claimed Kwekwe was shot in bed apparently as she slept.

"In the house, we were three; Kwekwe Mwandaza, me and Luvuno and the police just hit and opened the door and shot Mwandaza at close range," he said while crying. And his sister Luvuno also alleged Kwekwe attacked no one.

Gladys Some, a spokeswoman for IPOA, said investigators have interviewed Kwekwe's parents and will soon speak with the local police.

Tragically, the police claim the man they were looking for when they burst into the house Kwekwe was sleeping is still at large.

Kwale County Commissioner Evans Achoki said that a judicial inquest wouldl be opened on events leading to the fatal shooting, but maintained that Kwekwe was killed after attacking CID officer investigating a mur

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