We need to place their actions against international practice even in democracies like the USA, France, and Italy
Since the late January shooting incident
in Luzira that killed one person and injured two, the public has been
baying for the blood of the “culprits” to wit (now) former director for
planning in KCCA, George Agaba and a policeman, Santos Komakech. To whet
the appetite of an angry public, the DPP moved fast to charge them with
murder. The police also moved swiftly to distance themselves from the
incident accusing KCCA officials of going to evict encroachers without
notifying them.
However, hindsight is clear sight; we
have the hindsight because we have carefully watched the video in the
comfort of our living rooms. We have the patience, emotional stability
and calmness of our homes and are therefore able to see where there was a
chance to exercise restraint. It is like blaming Theo Walcott for that
goal he failed to score against Aston Villa in the FA Cup. He could have
passed the ball to Van Perse on his left or Song to the far end of the
goal post both of whom were unmarked. I suspect during the pressure of
the game those off the pitch would see more scoring opportunities than
the players.
The problem is that neither Agaba nor
Komakech had that luxury we have in our living rooms. They were acting
on the spur of the moment and in a hostile environment. They had a mob
that was wielding sticks, iron bars and stones surrounding them. And it
was making a lot of noise. Noise creates a mood of emergency. The mob
can also be seen in the video lynching KCCA enforcement officers with
sticks, stones and fists. And it injured 15 of them, six badly. Police
have their medical reports. The cameraman focused on Komakech, not the
mob.
Komakech is not the monster the mob and
its police allies paint in television interviews. The reaction of
Komakech is clearly one of self-defence; to save his life and that of
the KCCA officers under his charge and who were, by the way, enforcing a
lawful order. If Komakech did what he did in the circumstances of
attack from a mob in any democracy – Sweden, USA, UK, Norway etc, he
would not have been arrested as he was. The NTV video, even with the
biases of the cameraman, is enough to show that he was acting in
self-defence for himself and the KCCA team.
If Komakech and through him Agaba
overreacted, it was because they were at the risk of being overpowered
by the mob. In fact during most of the shooting, Agaba himself had
escaped from the scene already, his car (and other KCCA vehicles), had
their windscreens shuttered by the mob. Even if Komakech and Agaba are
accused of overreaction, we should not be blind to the violence meted
against officers of KCCA enforcing lawful orders by this mob. The rule
of law means that law governed behaviour is the rule. Without the rule
of law we have anarchy.
The fact that the mob was armed and was
lynching KCCA officials is sufficient justification for Komakech’s
actions. We need to place Komakech’s actions against international
practice even in democracies. In 1999, the New York Police Department
(NYPD) was chasing a serial killer in a city suburb. Then they saw a
young guy, Amadou Diallo, who fitted the description of the suspect on
the street and ordered him to stop. The boy, an immigrant from Guinea,
began running away from the police officers.
As he was climbing the staircase to his
apartment, the police caught up with him. They shouted at him to stop
and put up his hands. Instead, he stopped and put his hand in his rear
pocket to remove something. The officer in charge, fearing the young man
could have been pulling out a gun, gave an order to shoot. Forty one
bullets were shot at this hapless boy, 19 of them in his chest and he
died instantly. When they got to his copse, they found he had pulled
only a wallet from his pocket, most likely to show them his
identification documents.
The case generated mass hysteria in New
York and the whole of America. This was especially so among the
African-American community against who police brutality is often
selectively applied. Perhaps because of political pressure, the police
officers involved in the incident were charged with murder. In fact the
trial had to be taken out of New York City to a neutral venue so that
public sentiments do not significantly influence the jury. To cut the
long story short, the case went up to the supreme court of the USA. The
police officers were acquitted. The judges agreed that police action was
reasonable given the circumstances; the fear that the suspect was going
to shoot and kill the police officers.
I can cite other examples of police in
UK, Norway and France who have acted in such a manner during riots. In
many such cases, police officers are not charged with murder for
defending themselves. If that happened, few people would be willing to
join the police to risk their lives for our safety. In dealing with the
Agaba-Komakech case, we need to bench-mark them against international
practice even in democracies. The public is justified to get emotional
about the death of a person but that should not be the guiding rationale
for the DPP, the police and other institutions of state.
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