Interior Principal Secretary Dr. Raymond Omollo has expressed regret at the violence meted on peaceful anti-femicide protesters in the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) on Tuesday.
PS Omollo, who spoke on Citizen TV’s JKLive Show on Wednesday, termed the violent scenes by police officers to unharmed protesters as “unfortunate and unacceptable” on the part of the government.
He acknowledged the importance of the demos in line with sensitizing Kenyans against femicide during the International Human Rights Day, underscoring that those found culpable would face the law.
“I think yesterday’s events were pretty much unfortunate and one happening on such an important day definitely, just shows the challenge we have around policing and looking at the people who were out there demonstrating,” said the PS.
“Of course, we have had a series of concerns across the country over the last few days on issues of femicide and for me it’s a question where we say things just didn’t go right. It is not something we would want to say that is acceptable. We have had conversations with the Inspector General of Police, and it is regrettable and something that should not have happened in the first place.”
PS Omollo added: “It is something that we highly regret. We have the internal processes within the structure of police and what we expect is that anybody found culpable definitely has to be taken through the legal process and established protocols.”In his defence of the security organs, the PS urged Kenyans to treat the incident as a disciplinary action similar to one given to a child by their parent.
According to him, though the actions of the police may have initially been perceived as correctional seeking to enforce law and order, their actions probably got out of hand.
“You can look at it from a point where as a parent you are trying to punish your child but in the process, out of that enthusiasm you end up going overboard and become highly uncontrollable,” he noted.
The remarks by PS Omollo come as the government continues to face sharp criticism over the incident where police officers in Nairobi lobbed teargas at demonstrators protesting the alarming rise of femicide cases across the country.
Videos shared on social media showed protesters being roughed up and arrested in the CBD by what appeared to be plainclothes police officers.
Protesters also shared images of live bullets police reportedly fired at the peaceful marchers.
In a joint statement, Amnesty International Kenya, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), Human is My ID Alliance and the End Femicide KE Movement termed the incident a grave violation of human rights.
The United States government through its Embassy in Nairobi later came out to condemn the incident reiterating its support for the Kenyan people’s right to express their concerns and call for justice in the face of growing violence against women.
The US slammed the move by police lamenting that the incident occurred on International Human Rights Day, when people around the world are called to reflect on and uphold human rights.
“Regrettable and concerning to see police action against Kenyans exercising their constitutional rights to assemble and protest peacefully,” the statement read in part.
“On #InternationalHumanRightsDay and every day, the United States supports efforts to #EndFemicideKE and protect the human rights of all people.”
