With several journalists scarred from police brutality, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Martins Okoth Ochola who was once quoted saying that Police would continue beating journalists for their own safety has said that he aired out the statements as a joke.
While appearing before the parliamentary Defence committee yesterday afternoon the IGP who was tasked to justify his statements that are believed to have given the policemen the green light to beat up the members of the fourth estate said that he’s against Police brutality and was taken out of context.
“What I said was intended as a joke, I make a lot of jokes but it turned out that it was taken out of context because that is wrong. I do not condone any police officer committing a criminal offence. First of all, my record on handling human rights issues is well known when I was appointed in 2018, the first thing I did was to close that venue [Nalufenya] to address the human rights issues,” Ochola said.
Ochola bragged to the the committee about his outstanding record on upholding human rights and the rule of law, adding that the infamous attack at the offices of the UN Human rights offices was never orchestrated by the police.
This comes after many journalists who were on campaign trails sustained injuries from the Police batons, rubber bullets and teargas canisters.