- Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki has affirmed that there are no shoot-to-kill orders against demonstrators or any other suspects.
- The CS said where there have been shooting incidents of protesters, investigations are ongoing to establish who used live ammunition during protests.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki has affirmed that there are no shoot-to-kill orders against demonstrators or any other suspects.
The CS said where there have been shooting incidents of protesters investigations are ongoing to establish who used live ammunition during protests.
"The policy of this administration is zero tolerance on extrajudicial killings, the police officers have been informed accordingly," Kindiki said.
"We shall not protect officials who misuse their firearms to kill people other than what the law provides on the use of lethal force."
Kindiki said officers from the Internal Affairs unit of the police and the Independent Police Oversight Authority have been deployed to probe incidents of shooting during demonstrations.
He said police who use live ammunition will be dealt with in accordance with the law if investigations point towards them.
"We have not had deaths even in the recent dramatic protests but where we have had deaths, the investigations will show whose gun was used if it was civilian or police owned and action will be taken," Kindiki said.
Appearing before the National Assembly to respond to questions by MPs, the CS maintained that the government is determined to stop extrajudicial killings.
Responding to a supplementary question from Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi(Ugunja), the CS said investigations are ongoing to establish who killed a Maseno University student during the Azimio protests.
William Mayange, a third-year Literature student at Maseno University, was allegedly shot by an officer without any lawful cause.
Kindiki also denied Wandayi's claims that the police were applying double standards in probing police killings.
"I would like to assure this house that the government has no double standard. The same measure that we have applied in Chuka is the same measures that have been applied in other regions," he said.
Regarding the ongoing operation to flush out bandits in the North Rift, Kindiki said the government has doubled the number of officers deployed in the region.
He said that despite the sporadic raids, the joint operation by the military and police has made tremendous successes to pacify the region and reduce the number of raids.
Kindiki said when the government gave a window for the civilians to move from bandits-infested areas, some criminals who are conducting raids would have mixed with the community.
"We have been able to dominate those areas and remove the threats but during that window that we have some of the criminals could have mixed with the population," he said.
'They are making sporadic raids, we have been able to recover livestock and thwart numerous attacks."
Kindiki said some bandits divide stolen livestock into small groups after conducting raids, making recovery challenging.
"This is a problem that started in 1977, we are doing everything possible to make sure that we have an end, it can't be a month, not six months or a year, but we will reach there no matter what it takes," he said.