The facts: On Monday August 27, Sheikh Aboud Rogo was shot and killed in his car outside of Mombasa.

He was buried that afternoon, following which Mombasa youth protesting his murder damaged cars, three churches and looted stores.

In the two-day conflict that ensued — between the Kenya Police Force and its paramilitary General Service Unit on the one hand, and the protesters on the other — three prisons officers were killed as well as one civilian. A grenade attack injured four additional security personnel.

More facts: Rogo had been charged, in Mombasa in January this year, on various counts relating to the possession of illegal weapons.

He was, at that time, already defending himself against other criminal charges in Nairobi relating to allegedly being a member of Somali militant group Al Shabaab.

In early July this year, the United States had placed Rogo on its sanctions list — freezing any of his assets in the US and preventing any American from doing business with him.

So much for those facts.

In short, on the face of it, the Kenyan courts were set to decide the truth or otherwise of the allegations against him. But their jurisdiction was ended by the bullets that ended his life. Justice denied. And the question is whether that alone explains the protesters’ reactions.

A murder is no small thing. But other facts are in order here to understand the protesters’ reactions:

In February this year, as documented by Muslim Human Rights and the Muslim Human Rights Forum, the disappearances of Ngoy Kayembe and Shani Lydia, both last seen in the company of men who identified themselves as police officers.

In March this year, the removal from a bus of Samir Khan (also charged in relation to Al Shabaab) and Mohammed Kassim by men who identified themselves as police officers.

Khan’s mutilated body was found in Tsavo National Park a few days later. Kassim’s whereabouts remain unknown.

Which brings us back to Rogo. Who had, in late July, reported escaping an attempted abduction by men who (surprise) claimed to be police officers. Passers-by helped him resist being pushed into an unmarked car.

Yet the police say that Rogo was, in fact, murdered by Al Shabaab.

Note that the Mombasa youth didn’t cause havoc and mayhem when Rogo (or any of the above) were charged before the courts. They didn’t protest the judicial process.

They caused havoc and mayhem because they are, simply put, tired of the abuse of judicial process—through disappearances and murders they believe were committed by the police.

In short, what the Mombasa youth are saying is that either we have rule of law or we don’t. Either the Anti Terrorism Police Unit properly investigates and charges those believed to be supporting jihadis — or the ATPU gets disbanded.

The Kenya Police Force needs to deal decisively with either those within its ranks who are unconstitutionally and illegally taking the law into their own hands or those impersonating its ranks to do the same.

Not a single one of us has the right to abduct or murder another Kenyan — even those Kenyans we may believe to be jihadis out to injure innocent civilians. Not a single one of us will ever truly be safe if we start to believe that we do have that right.

L. Muthoni Wanyeki is doing her graduate studies at L’Institut d’etudes politiques (Sciences Po) in Paris, France