Four Kenyan police officers pleaded not guilty Monday to the killing of a six-month-old girl during bloody riots that erupted over a presidential election in 2017.The death of Samantha Pendo became for many Kenyans a symbol of unchecked police brutality during the disputed election, the first in the country’s history to be annulled.Murder, rape and torture charges against civilians were read out to the four officers in a Nairobi court on Monday. They pleaded not guilty to all counts.The charges against seven others were dropped by the prosecutor at the last minute.”At least now I know that the justice I was crying for from the beginning, I am going to get it,” Samantha’s father Joseph Oloo Abanja told reporters outside the court.Samantha died after she was allegedly beaten by police officers during a raid on her house as protests flared in the western city of Kisumu.On the day of the incident, police allegedly fired tear gas into their house and battered down the door before raining blows on the couple with batons while the mother held Samantha in her arms. An autopsy showed that she suffered acute head injuries.The case has dragged on, with repeated court delays and the disappearance of one of the main suspects nearly five years ago.”Today I felt good,” Samantha’s mother Lensa Achieng said.”It has not been an easy journey for us. Because each time this case comes up, we always feel traumatised,” she said.- Precedent -Amnesty International’s Kenya director Irungu Houghton said the case was setting a precedent in the country that “elections should not come with death, trauma and injuries”.But Amnesty joined 29 other rights groups in condemning the last-minute reduction to just four accused, as well as the inclusion of the names of victims and witnesses in the charge sheet, which they say could jeopardise the case. The officers, who remain on active duty, were ordered to return for a bail hearing on May 14. The 2017 protests erupted after victory was declared for then-president Uhuru Kenyatta, angering supporters of veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga.The result was annulled by the Supreme Court after a challenge by Odinga, but he boycotted the rerun that was won by Kenyatta.The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights documented 94 deaths during the 2017 election crisis as well as 201 cases of sexual violence and over 300 woundings,the majority of which were attributed to security forces.
