Azimio leaders in Mombasa have vowed to sue senior police officers in the region for dispersing them during their peaceful protest on Friday.
The leaders accompanied by supporters and human rights activists had converged at Mapembeni area along Moi Avenue to demonstrate against the high cost of living and the recently passed Finance Bill.
During the protest, police lobbed several teargas canisters on the demonstrators as they were heading to treasury square to present a petition to the Mombasa county commissioner.
Mombasa Senator Mohammed Faki while condemning the police brutality said that as Azimio leaders, they will take legal action against specific police officers including the Officer Commanding Station (OCS Central police)
“This was not a demonstration, it was a procession where people were going to present a memorandum to the county commissioner on the high cost of commodities in the country,” he said.
He said that no law requires a police officer to license any demos. Instead, provide security to the people participating and ensure they are not harmed.
“I want to tell the OCS, we have his name and we will take him to court to come and answer to us why he dispersed the peaceful procession. I will personally take the matter to court on Monday to ensure that such a thing does not happen again in Mombasa,” he said.
“If the price of fuel goes up, everything goes up. Therefore these demos are for the benefit of Kenyan citizens, people are fighting for their rights and this is not the end, we will keep on until that time justice will happen.”
Likoni Member of Parliament Mishi Mboko said that Kenyans are oppressed by the Finance Bill law.
“We are here to support the activists who are united to give the voice of a Kenya, today the Kenya Kwanza government is telling us about bringing the cost of living down when at the same time they are rising the price of fuel by 16 per cent,” she said.
“You know everything is about fuel, production and transportation yet you are increasing, even those who are own private commercial vehicles, are being told to pay the tax and on the other side transport has been increased, Kenyans do not have food and even money to help them go look for casual jobs.”
She said that The Kenya Kwanza government said within 100 days, Kenyans will be living in a respective way but it’s almost nine months of Kenyans being oppressed.
“You have denied us food and transport and now you are throwing tear gas at us, Kenyans have reached to a point where they do not have food and the only food they are eating is teargas, shame on you,” she said.
She said that the price of flour is Sh250 and in case the act works, it will raise to Sh400.
The MP said that the interest of Kenya is about the cost of living.
“We as leaders together with the NGOs, initially used to be about politicians but the narrative is not about politics, it is about the lives of Kenyans and we will not keep quiet because the constitution has given the permission to protest and even demonstrate,” she said.
“The organizations wrote the letter on time but we do not know what else we were supposed to do, if you want to violate and remove the law, bring a referendum to see if you can violate the rights of Kenyans, we are tired,” she said.
Jomvu MP Twalib Badi said that as local leaders they will work hand in hand with nongovernmental organizations to ensure that the rights of human beings are found.
“Even the police officers who threw teargas on us, their children are sleeping hungry, what we are fighting for is the lives of everyone because the stomach does not know UDA, ODM,” Badi said.
“All the Mombasa MPs were against the 2023 Finance Bill, we did this to show what we are fighting for in this country. We thank our coming president Raila Amolo Odinga for standing with Kenyans,” he said.
He said that the cost of doing business is too high to the extent that people are moving from the Port of Mombasa to the Port of Da-es-Salaam.
He said that the demos could have been big but it was disrupted by police officers, however, they will not stop and give them even a one-week notification so that the government can listen to the Kenyan.
Kisauni MP Rashid Benziba said that they said no to the finance bill because they knew it will affect the lives of people.
“This teargas should be investigated because they are so bitter, the government should listen to the Kenyans because there is a huge danger in future,” he said.
Francis Auma, human rights activist at MUHURI said that one person broke her leg because she was beaten by a police officer.
“We are very disappointed because we did not manage to reach out to any civil servant, the police beat us up yet we did not have any bad intentions,” he said.
He said there was a proper notification but was declined at the last minute with no explanation given.
“There are no security threats in Mombasa and every Kenyan should be given the opportunity to speak their mind,” he said.