Police pursuing protest goons, says acting IG Kanja

Acting Police IG Douglas Kanja. [Collins Kweyu, Standard]

Police have launched investigations to unveil individuals behind destruction of property witnessed in some parts of Nairobi and Kakamega on Tuesday, July 23, during anti-government protests.

According to the Acting Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja, investigators are pursuing leads on the possibility of the unrests being sponsored.

“Our preliminary investigations indicate that some goons disguising as protestors were hired from elsewhere to cause chaos in some of the affected areas where looting and destruction of property were witnessed,” said Kanja.

The said chaos was reported in Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) around Kimathi Street, Archives, North Airport Road, Pipeline area, Roysambu and Kakamega Town.

In Nairobi, a group of anti-protests bodaboda operators conducted a coordinated patrol across the town before clashing with city centre bodaboda operators who accused them of robbery leading to the torching of a motorcycle.

Witness accounts indicated that the suspected goons received a pay of a thousand shillings each and their motorcycles fueled before hitting the road.

Meanwhile, Kanja has commended the police for a seamless operation in quelling the protests that he says ‘attracted low turnout’.

Further, the police boss has expressed satisfaction with police officers manning the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport after protestors had vouched to #OccupyJKIA during Tuesday protests.