The Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party legislators have accused the police of inciting violence during Monday’s protest.
They claimed that their supporters were peaceful until the police intervened.
“Yesterday’s protests were peaceful in their planning and execution until the police interfered,” Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party Secretary General, Edwin Sifuna, stated.
Sifuna went on to add, “We encouraged our supporters to show up unarmed, but yet we were still confronted with tear gas and rubber bullets.”
Sifuna added that the coalition is working to identify individual officers involved in causing the violence and will refer them to the Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA).
Suna East MP, Junet Mohamed, stated that it is up to the police to determine whether the protests will be peaceful or not.
“It is only the police who can decide whether protests will be peaceful or violent,” he said.
Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi had earlier said that the police should be squarely blamed for stoking violence by lobbing teargas canisters and unleashing water cannons on supporters he alleged were peaceful and unarmed.
According to the politician, Azimio supporters did not provoke police despite being pushed to the limits by security officers whom he said decided to brutalise them.
“The police action was unwarranted. Even before the procession started they were all over town blocking roads and harassing people,” the MP said.
“From what we saw yesterday, the police are largely to blame. They used teargas where it was not necessary even on Members of Parliament.”
The MP said it was unfortunate that security officers decided to beat up and ‘terrorise’ protesters despite Azimio having handed a public notice for the mass action.
“I saw that Azimio protesters were peaceful but were provoked by police in some cases so the limited violence you saw was because police used excessive force,” he said.
