The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) is seeking the arrest of acting Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja and Nairobi Police Commander Adamson Bungei over police actions during the recent anti-government protests in Nairobi.
IPOA commissioner John Waiganjo stated on Wednesday that the authority is dissatisfied with the unprofessionalism displayed by police personnel when engaging demonstrators over the previous four weeks and is now elevating the matter to the judiciary.
"We are very frustrated when we do not get information from the police commanders," he said
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"That is why we are calling out the Nairobi police commander Adamson Bungei, the acting IG and we are saying that if we are not going to get this information we are going to petition the court to issue a warrant for their arrest because they carry the biggest responsibility."
According to Waiganjo, the authority has been monitoring the instruments used by cops to combat both peaceful and rogue protestors, such as live bullets and fatal tear gas.
He questioned why cops have been disguising their identities by covering their faces, masking their names and badges, and claiming that they plainly have negative intentions once they are dispatched to the streets.
"It is clear that the police are breaking the law. We are suspecting that there is a specific unit that is being sent out there apart from the ordinary deployment to go and commit atrocities," he said.
"We have monitored the tooling of the officers, we have seen the substances that they are using, we know that they are not well prepared, they are using live bullets and you saw instead of using water canons they are using some other substance which we have also sought to be provided with."
