Over three hundred protesters were on Thursday arraigned in various courts across the six counties that participated in the ongoing anti-government protests, Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kithure Kindiki revealed.
The CS said the suspects were arraigned for committing various crimes including looting, malicious damage of property, arson, robbery with violence, unlawful assembly, preparation to commit a felony and destruction of buildings and infrastructure were arraigned in various courts in different regions as follows; Nairobi (113), Rift Valley (61), Eastern (53), Nyanza (47),Coast (20) and Western (10).
“The government assures the public that all those responsible for the mayhem that has rocked the country in the last two days will be brought to Justice,” vowed the CS in a statement released last evening.
He noted that despite a violent start to the three-day anti-government protests on Wednesday, Thursday recorded fewer incidents as normalcy returned to areas that had recorded chaos the previous day.
“The public is hereby informed that the wave of hooliganism, disruption of order and lawlessness that began on Wednesday has been fully contained and the Country has returned to normalcy. Save for a few cases of looting and breach of the peace by small bands of marauding lawbreakers in a few places, normal daily activities went on normally in most parts of the Country,” added Prof Kindiki.
The protests seeking to push the government to repeal the controversial Finance Act whose implementation has since been suspended by the government also have been violent since they started with Amnesty International Kenya recording 30 killings of protestors allegedly by police officers.
“They include March 20 and 27 protests (12 killings), saba saba protests (12 killings) and July 19th (six killings). The deaths have been attributed to suffocation from tear gas and lethal shootings,” Amnesty Executive Director said as he called for an immediate stop to violent policing and criminalization of protests by the state.
On his part however, Prof Kindiki maintained that security personnel have continued to discharge the mandate of maintenance of law and order with utmost professionalism, firmness and impartiality.
“While the ill-advised and unlawful outrage of crime has been thwarted and will not be allowed to re-emerge, security agencies remain fully engaged with the situation in the country and will build on the experience of the last two days to make sure that law enforcement achieves even better results tomorrow (Friday), in the wake of reports that organisers of the violent protests have incited the public to continue engaging in unlawful protests and violence tomorrow,”added the CS.
He called on Kenyans to go about with their business on Friday when the opposition plans to hold its last batch of protests for this week.
“Public and private sector workers, business people, travelers, and everyone are advised to continue with their daily nation building activities tomorrow and the days ahead, and leave the matter of their safety and security to the National Police Service and other security organs of the Country,”he said.
