EXPERT: Police must stop taking orders from politicians

We had tried to communicate with the authorities from two days ago about this planned demonstration but they were very adamant.

Yesterday (Wednesday), they said there will be no protests and they did not give any reason justifying their position.

All they said was they were acting on instructions from above.

Demonstrations is a constitutional right, the only thing that you need to do is to notify the police, not seeking permission.

That was done, then on Wednesday night while watching the news I saw Interior CS Kipchumba Murkomen saying there is no notice received.

The problem with the police is that they only think their duty is to protect the government not to obey the law by acting in line with the law and the constitution.

They (police) don’t see that the constitution gives that right to the people and their work is to provide security during such demonstrations. Period.

Everything is politicised.

The police are always subordinate to the politicians and that is the tragedy we are living with.

Murkomen issues a statement to the police. That is not their mandate.

Police see everything Kenyans do including demonstrations, as against the government of the day and they cannot stomach that at all.

The demonstration was not as big as last year's because like in Mombasa we had a very big turn out last year but because of  threats many people stepped back this time round.

The threats were not good at all for our democracy because the people have a right to demonstrate and petition the authorities.

This year there is reluctant improvement on the way the police handled protesters because the crowd was not as big.

The police must start adhering to the dictates of our constitution without appearing to be protecting the government of the day.

Police is an independent institution and should not take orders from politicians or those in power. They should conduct themselves as per the expectations of our constitution.

The Director at Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI) spoke to  the Star