A total of 174 people were arrested on Thursday during the Nane Nane protests in the country.
Acting Inspector General of police Gilbert Masengeli said of these, 126 were arrested in Nairobi, 22 in Kitengela and 26 in Emali-Makueni county.
He said the country remained peaceful and normalcy prevailed except in Nairobi where one police officer was injured.
“Consequently, the National Police Service would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all law-abiding Kenyans for preserving peace and maintaining law and order across the country today.
“Kenya is a democratic country and as a service, we wish to reiterate our commitment to promoting democratic policing that is upholds the rule of law, professionalism, transparency and accountability,” he said.
Masengeli added that the police acknowledge the supremacy of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, in particular Article 37 that guarantees right for every person peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket and to present petitions to public authorities.
“Despite failure by conveners of today’s demonstration to notify the police of their intention to hold the demonstrations, we ensured adequate deployment of security personnel and cautioned members of public to avoid crowded areas that were likely to turn riotous.”
The police boss added that intelligence had indicated that there were security threats to the country, where criminals had planned to infiltrate the demonstrations and cause havoc.
He said this led to the interception of a car linked to businessman Jimi Wanjigi that had four teargas canisters, two Motorola gadgets, seven assorted chargers for the pocket phones and one mobile phone.
Wanjigi denied the claims.
In the protests, police blocked main routes to the central business district as others used teargas canisters to disperse all manner of gatherings.
Thika Road, Mombasa Road, Ngong Road, Jogoo Road and Langata Road were blocked by armed police who targeted public service vehicles and ordered the drivers to turn back.
Police said they were averting plans by goons to infiltrate the protests.
Tens of anti riot police were deployed to various streets keeping any group emerging at bay.
Human rights organisations condemned what they described as use of excessive force in the police operations.
The protests had been called under the hash tag #NaneNanemarch to among others call for reforms in government.