A total of 174 people were Thursday arrested in 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-Rift Valley 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.
He said they 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 demonstration, we ensured adequate deployment of security personnel and cautioned members of public to avoid crowded areas that were likely to turn riotous.”
He added intelligence had indicated that there were security threats to our country, with criminals who had planned to infiltrate today’s demonstrations and cause havoc.
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 any gathering.
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.
The protests had been called under the Nane Nane march to among others call for reforms in government to address rampant corruption.
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.
They used teargas canisters to disperse them.
Human rights organizations condemned what they described as use of excessive force in the police operations.
Activist Khalid Hussein said police were brutally attacking innocent and peaceful protesters.
“We have witnessed instances where police are brutal and we condemn that. These protests are peaceful,” he said.
He said the police were also targeting even journalists which he termed unacceptable.
Almost all shops remained closed in the city as police roamed throwing teargas canisters at any group. Some officers harassed security guards and journalists for no reason.
Some locked a group that was in a restaurant saying they were using the facility to plan protests. This led to more losses.
Police became more violent at 2 pm dispersing anyone on site and even targeted bodaboda riders.
They said that was the time the protesters planned more chaos.
Most towns remained calm with low business activities.
The organizers of the protests had planned to converge in Nairobi to push for their demands.
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