NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 26 – Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki has defended the police officers against accusations of killing protestors in the nationwide demonstrations held in June and July this year.
Appearing before the National Assembly National Administration and Internal Security Committee, CS Kindiki said no evidence shows that indeed police officers killed demonstrators.
“The fact that somebody has been shot is not conclusive evidence that they have been shot by a police officer. Maybe there is a presumption that that bullet belongs to a police officer,” he said.
The Interior Boss maintained only 42 people lost their lives during the Gen Z-led protests across the country.
“There were 42 cases of people who lost their lives during the Gen Z demonstrations,” he said.
The human rights organisations had detailed that 61 people had lost their lives during the anti-finance bill demonstrations.
A total of 1,208 people were arrested countrywide during the Gen Z demonstrations and most of the cases are still pending before court for various charges,” Kindiki said.
The Ministry of Interior disclosed that anti finance bill protests witnessed in the country in June and July were meant to overthrow President William Ruto’s administration.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki revealed the details saying the protest were aimed constitutional offices including the Parliament, Judiciary and even the State House.
“Those who had tried to commit this crime also had intended to access the State House and take it over unconstitutionally,”Kindiki said before National Assembly Administration and Internal Security committee.
“There was an attempt to burn and attack other protected areas such as the Supreme Court, because there was an attack on the office of the CJ which means the judiciary was affected,”he added.
CS Kindiki mentioned that there was a second attempt to burn down parliament after the June 25 a incident during the protests where Parliament was invaded.
“Two days after we frustrated the efforts to burn down Parliament and kill members, we arrested a suspect at 4 am outside Parliament carrying fuel intending to go and raze down Parliament,” he said.
The Interior Boss made the sentiments while defending the lethal force used by the police during the demonstrations.
CS Kindiki insisted if the security agencies hesitated to use lethal force then the government would have been overthrown.
“Those people who were invading Parliament were not coming to stop the passing of the finance bill, they were coming to kill you,”he said.
“if police never used lethal force during the invasion of Parliament, we would never have Kenya like we have today,”Kindiki added.
The Interior Cabinet Secretary stressed on extreme vigilance when it comes to protecting constitutional offices expressing that any breach of security will tear the country apart.
“If we overthrow constitutional offices like parliament, judiciary or executive we will have no country. We will have nowhere even to discuss these,” he said.
Source: capitalfm
