Police officers arrest a protester in Nairobi on May 18, 2026 during the strike by PSV operators against the high fuel prices.
Dishan Angoya’s 45-kilometre trip from Thika on April 30, 2026 seemed like the culmination of hard work as he was to head one of the country’s biggest and busiest security installations in the frame of Nairobi’s Central Police Station.
That he was a first-time Officer Commanding Station (OCS) made the appointment worth noting as a huge career milestone, as such big facilities are usually led by more experienced hands.
Barely three weeks into the job, transport sector owners and operators paralysed the country when they went on strike, demanding that the government lower petroleum prices.
Some members of the public took to the streets, Nairobi County police boss Issa Mohamud maintaining that the protests were illegal.
Police arrested 710 people across the country. Some protesters, others, an assortment of suspected criminals.
Of those, 189 were arrested in Nairobi County. Of those arrested in Nairobi, 64 suspects were detained at the Central Police Station. And among the 64 was a group of individuals suspected of having attacked the Nairobi Regional Police Commander, Issa Mohamud.
Mr Mohamud was attacked by a group of youths when monitoring the status of the protests in Kangemi on Monday afternoon, an attack that led to his hospitalisation.
Police arrest a protester along Moi Avenue in Nairobi during demonstrations against high fuel prices.
Officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations arrested an undisclosed number of youths in Kangemi and intended to have them charged with Mr Mohamud’s assault.
However, before he clocked out for the day, Mr Angoya released 64 suspects in his station in a move that would ring alarm bells further up the command chain.
A few minutes after midnight, a group of police officers knocked on Mr Angoya’s door at home. When Mr Angoya opened the door, Deputy Regional Police Commander Omar Arero was at the doorstep.
Mr Arero broke the news that the officers had come to arrest Mr Angoya for abuse of office. Particularly, the allegation was that the 64 suspects had bribed Mr Angoya in return for their release from custody.
Released 64 suspects
Police protocols provide that an officer of Mr Angoya’s rank cannot be arrested by his juniors, hence Mr Arero's presence.
The arresting officers further alleged that Mr Angoya had no authority to release some of the 64 suspects, as they had been booked into Central Police Station by the DCI, hence could only be set free by the arresting agency.
In an interview with the Nation on Tuesday, Interior PS Raymond Omollo confirmed that some of the 64 individuals Mr Angoya released were suspects in an attack on Mr Mohamud.
Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Interior and National Administration Dr Raymond Omollo during the interview with NTV in Nairobi on May 19, 2026.
Dr Omollo said the release of the suspects was in bad faith, holding that the security sector will play its part in protecting everybody’s rights.
“If the police officer on the road, like yesterday, the Regional Police Commander (Issa Mohamud) was assaulted in Kangemi. He has an injury; he had to be taken to the hospital. Of course, in the process, there were definitely some arrests that he made, or his officers made." Dr Omollo said.
"They were taken to a police station and people were asked to leave at night. Not to say there is anything the officer in charge may have done wrong, but you see what I am talking about?” he explained, adding that it is time the country had a conversation about the balance of rights in situations like protests.
Now, barely three weeks into the biggest promotion of his career, Mr Angoya will face an internal disciplinary process whose maximum punishment, if found guilty, is dismissal from the National Police Service.
Mr Angoya is expected to face investigators from the Internal Affairs Unit to explain the circumstances that led to his order that the 64 suspects be released.
While the station boss (OCS) is mandated by law to order the release of prisoners from police custody, his bosses were angry after the suspects left the station on Monday night.
Aside from those suspected of assaulting Mr Mohamud, the DCI intended to have some of the arrested individuals charged with serious crimes such as arson and robbery with violence.
While the station boss has the powers to release suspects, he can only do so for suspects arrested by his officers, and not those arrest by other agencies like the DCI.
Central Police Station in Nairobi.
In the case of suspects brought in by the DCI, the OCS must liaise with the DCI boss seconded to their police station before issuing release orders, according to the National Police Service standing orders.
Hours before Mr Mohamud’s assault, the Nairobi County police boss had vowed that protestors would be prosecuted, holding that there was no notification to the police of the mass action.
“We will charge them with serious offences, economic sabotage, and so many things, including damage to police vehicles, so they will face serious consequences and the full force of the law.”
“Blocking roads, disrupting business and engaging in violence will not lower the prices of oil, but will instead harm the economy, endanger lives, and that will attract the full force of the law,” he said in a press briefing while patrolling Nairobi streets on Monday.
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