Kenyan police dogged by extortion charges
Kenyan police dogged by extortion charges
Al Jazeera, 06 Aug 2014
URL: http://goo.gl/6WpHpA
Nairobi, Kenya - When Kenya's security forces knocked on the door of Abdinassir Ismail's house during a counter-terror crackdown last May, little did he know that they would ask for a bribe.
"There was a bang at the door followed by a loud command: 'Open the door,'" recalls 36-year-old Ismail.
Six policemen stood at the door and asked for his identification papers, he told Al Jazeera.
The group were part of "Operation Usalama [peace] Watch", launched to hunt down people suspected of having links to Somalia's armed group al-Shabab, which is blamed by the Kenyan government for a series of deadly attacks, including last September's siege on a mall in Nairobi that left 77 people dead.
"There was a bang at the door followed by a loud command: 'Open the door,'" recalls 36-year-old Ismail.
Six policemen stood at the door and asked for his identification papers, he told Al Jazeera.
The group were part of "Operation Usalama [peace] Watch", launched to hunt down people suspected of having links to Somalia's armed group al-Shabab, which is blamed by the Kenyan government for a series of deadly attacks, including last September's siege on a mall in Nairobi that left 77 people dead.