Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki spoke for the first time on Tuesday July 2 since the occupy Parliament protests started over the rejected Finance Bill 2024 and demanded the end of violence in the violence.
Kindiki has been mum on the protests for a week now.
“This reign of terror against the people of Kenya and the impunity of dangerous criminal gangs must end at whatever cost,” he said.
He said government is determined to stop criminals aiming to terrorise the public and harm Kenya, notwithstanding attempts to politicise crime.
Overall, he said, the police continue to act professionally and with restraint in the management of extremely provocative situations that arise in the course of the violent riots.
He said Tuesday June, 25 2024, an unprecedented civil unrest occurred in Nairobi and several other towns in Kenya as a result of which lives were lost, property worth billions of shillings destroyed or looted, and an attempt was made to burn down Parliament Buildings.
“The unrest, legitimately initiated as the democratic expression of public disapproval of the Finance Bill 2024, led to the termination of the Bill.”
“Notwithstanding the termination of the Bill, hordes of marauding criminal gangs continue to pose grave danger to the public, riding on announced plans for peaceful protests to disturb public order, commit arson, obstruct public transport and terrorise the people of Kenya with violence,” he said.
“The government commends all law enforcement officers who continue to discharge their challenging mandate of preventing crime and protecting the lives and property of the people of Kenya,” he added.
He said claims of some instances of unlawful conduct by law enforcement officers will be investigated and appropriate action taken.
Kindiki said security agencies remain alert to intercept and thwart harm to the public and attempts to attack critical infrastructure and the emblems of our sovereignty.
“Upon completion of the ongoing evidential analysis, the government assures the public that the planners, executors and financiers of large-scale arson, violent robberies and other felonious crimes will be brought to justice.”
Kindiki said organisers of Tuesday’s orgy of violence in parts of Nairobi, Mombasa and several other parts of the country are reportedly planning to repeat their anarchic chaos and cruel plunder again on Thursday and Sunday this week, and perhaps much more frequently in the future.
More than 40 people have been killed in separate incidents since the protests started.
Dozens others are injured in several hospitals.
Property worth millions have been looted in the chaos.