The Kenya Kwanza government is adopting the wrong leadership trajectory which is eroding the gains on the rights and freedoms of Kenyans, Likuyani MP Innocent Mugabe has opined.
According to Mugabe, numerous red flags have been raised during the anti-government protests where police officers have used excessive force on protesters, yet there are precise guidelines provided in law in regard to holding demonstrations.
Speaking on Citizen TV’s Daybreak show on Monday, the legislator argued that the government seems to be encouraging the excess shown by police adding that it will severely perforate the advances made to bolster the nation’s democracy.
“We are stage managing events to allow police to use extra forces in dealing with protesters and demonstrators to a point that they will now say that we tried they didn’t listen and now we have to use the full force of the law,” he said.
“They want to kill any credible democracy in the country and the government wants to rule without any checks and balances and we see this growing day by day.”
Mugabe further fingered police officers for the unsettling aftermath of last week’s three-day protests, arguing that police officers breached the law and provoked unrest in the nation.
“When people are protesting it is usually peaceful until the police fire bullets and throw teargas. You cannot say people are armed with stones yet police are armed. You cannot compare that,” he said.
He cited incidents where police officers even penetrated into residential areas, whisking people out and heedlessly beating them, questioning why they made a deliberate move to leave the streets where protesters were and opted to go for innocent Kenyans.
“We have now seen a precedence where un-uniformed people are planted in crowds working with police then they shoot or arrest those protesters. We have seen police enter into people’s homes not in the streets whisking them out of their houses, beating them recklessly and even killing them,” he said.
The country’s law enforcement has been in the spotlight over their handling of protesters in the series of anti-government protests attracting condemnation from the opposition and Human Rights organizations.
The use of excessive lethal force by the police has resulted in deaths and injuries and now the opposition says it is seeking to have the international community involved.
Meanwhile, Azimio la Umoja has announced that it is taking matters into its own hands by collecting evidence of police action against protesters right from the Saba Saba protests to last week’s three days of protests.
Azimio says this evidence will be crucial when it files a case against the government and the police at the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
