North Dagoreti member of Parliament Beatrice Elachi, has come out to deny claims that the police officers seen in a viral video loading petrol cylinders into their vehicle during Wednesday’s protests were looters.
Elachi clarified that she was aware that the officers were only carrying the cylinders to protect them from looters during the demonstrations, not stealing them as many netizens had claimed.
She claimed that once the protests were over, the officers returned the gas cylinders to their rightful owners.
“The police picked the cylinders and put them in their car and were going to safeguard it and bring it back to the owner,” Elachi said in an interview with K24.
Despite the lawmaker acknowledging that some officers may be guilty of such crimes, she confidently allayed fears and the suspicions of the officers looting.
“I am not saying the police do not get into crime, they do, but on this one, they picked those cylinders and have returned them to the owner so it would be unfair,” Elachi noted.
“The police have already returned the gas cylinders to the owner.”
In the clip which circulated online for the better part of Wednesday during the anti-government protests, about four officers were captured loading gas cylinders into their vehicle packed by the roadside.
Some Kenyans on social media would later claim that the officers were stealing the cylinders, with others saying they were only safeguarding them.
