Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary (CS) Alfred Mutua has criticised foreign powers for what he termed as false reporting on the situation in Kenya.
In a press statement, Mutua noted that there were foreign bodies who were making unsubstantiated claims about how the Kenyan government was handling protests.
The UN Human Rights Office, through spokesperson Jeremy Laurence, expressed concern about “widespread violence and alleged use of force by police that resulted in 23 people being killed,” a statement Mutua claims is inaccurate and misleading.
“Where are the 23 people? Give me their names. When you say police are using excessive force, show me them doing so,” he challenged the UN.
“This statement was not only inaccurate but misleading and appeared to have been written in support of a propaganda campaign by people opposed to the democratic will of the people,” Mutua said.
He added that the Ministry has rejected the statement and will be engaging the UN Human Rights Office to ensure proper communication is made in regard to the affairs of the country.
“We will be engaging through appropriate channels to ensure that the international community is not sucked into conspiracies that are aimed at destabilising our nation,” he said.
He further claimed that the violence witnessed during the anti-government protests was ‘politically instigated by paid goons’ thereby the UN’s description of demonstrations being peaceful was incorrect.
“These violent actions by a few paid goons have been politically instigated by known architects of violence and therefore cannot be categorised as peaceful assembly as alleged by the spokesperson. Far from it, what we have witnessed are violent protests with those involved carrying all manner of crude weapons.
CS Mutua added that the country is keen on holding those responsible for vandalism and violence responsible urging the international community to “closely scrutinise the architects of insurrection and anti-democratic elements when they wish to visit their countries and not to allow some of them to go and taint their democratic principles.”
He cautioned Kenyans in the diaspora to be weary of fake news spread via social media.
