Kisumu County governor elect Prof Anyang Nyong’o has appealed to the county residents to be peaceful as they demonstrate their disappointment in the outcome of the general election urging them to embrace nonviolent ways of protesting.
Nyong’o called on the residents to avoid barricading and burning objects as tires on the roads as it not only made the police intervene, but also destroys the roads.
“Those kind of road blocks are the ones that invite the police to come and use force to remove them. You are not allowed as a civilian to block traffic of any kind however much aggrieved you are,” said Nyong’o as he addressed the media in Kisumu.
He said there is a habit that emerged in the country that when people hold demonstrations they burn tires on the road not knowing it destroyed the road living a hole at the burned area creating undesired expenses to the government.
Nyong’o called on the people to desist from such kind of protests suggesting civil ways of industrial ore mass action.
“Carry twigs, shout slogans and let people know you are disgusted but do not destroy any property like the roads. It may serve the interest of the moment but later the government pays for it expensively,” he added.
He said they had appealed to the people and the police to tone down the confrontations and will be moving around an effort to contain the situation.
Police in Kisumu and parts of Nairobi have been accused of using excessive force on the people with human rights associations reporting several deaths as a result of the clashes.