ALTHOUGH the motives and political links of the policeman who killed Brother Timmons are still unclear, many ordinary Kenyans are prepared to believe the worst of a force which extracts bribes from them with monotonous regularity.
Visitors to Nairobi are counselled to give a wide berth to the police headquarters at Nyayo House, the venue for notorious torture sessions at various periods during President Daniel Arap Moi's rule.
"You mightn't come out again with all parts working," my driver told me, only halfjokingly.
Traffic police wave down drivers along the highways, yet drunken motorists, overcrowded minibuses and uninsured cars generally manage to get through if they pass the officers the appropriate "consideration".
Brother Timmons' complaint about bribery in the issuing of identity cards in his home village of Lare was not an isolated one. Throughout Kenya, local policemen and corrupt officials are lining their pockets by charging money to register people.
In Lare, the sum mentioned was £1.25 - or two days' work - but in richer areas up to £5 has been demanded. Only those with identity cards will be permitted to vote in this year's elections.
The police, who are under direct presidential control, have also delayed or refused the registration of citizens in anti government areas. The Kikuye, the largest tribe in Kenya, have experienced particular difficulties obtaining identity cards; they are also the group most hostile to Mr Moi.
According to Mr Maina Kiai, director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, the behaviour of the police is the worst stain on his country's record.
"The police are acting as free agents; they're not accountable to anyone. They can arrest you without reason, put you in a cell for months and when they get tired, they shoot to kill," he says.
Amnesty International concluded, in a report published last month, that torture continues to be "routinely used" by the police. One man had his arm amputated when it developed gangrene after being tied up during a torture session. Another lost the use of his limbs as a result of torture. Lesser forms of torture involved the use of electric shocks and submersion under water.
Every day, Kenya's newspapers are filled with accounts of violent crime, including cold blooded killings by robbers and lynchings of criminals by angry citizens.
Security is the main topic of conversation in Nairobi - unaffectionately known as Nairobbery to those who have experienced its high crime levels. The compound I stayed in last week was guarded by two security firms and a guard dog. Beside my bed were two baseball bats, an emergency alarm and a whistle.
One evening, I proposed going for a drink near where I was staying in Ngong, where Karen Blixen (alias Isak Dinesen author of Out of Africa), once had her farm in Africa.
The suggestion was abruptly torpedoed: "You don't go out at night in Ngong. Too many `carjackings'," said a colleague.
In this environment, the tough stance of the police commands some support. But Mr Kiai points out that crime continues to rise.
Although an administration policeman has been arrested in connection with Brother, Timmons' murder, few, observers expect anyone to go to jail for the offence. Recent Kenyan history is littered with high profile cases in which justice has not been served for example, the murders of the British tourist, Ms Julie Ward, and the naturalist, Mr George Adamson, and an attack on the anthropologist and opposition politician, Mr Richard Leakey.
It is only when the donor community and the international banks threatens to pull the plug that President Moi pays attention to human rights concerns.
The last time this happened, five years ago, police torture ceased for a time and elections were held.
Currently, however, the international community seems happy to extend Kenya additional credit without asking any serious questions.
Yet only this week Mr Moi used the excuse of the famine affecting 2.5 million Kenyans to introduce draconian emergency laws which could seal the country's status as a police state.
The laws allow the authorities to break up meetings of more than three people, impose curfews, censor articles critical of the government and detain people summarily.
With an election due shortly, the situation is likely to get worse, rather than better, in the foreseeable future.
