CS: Police won’t stop rallies’ bribes fights

Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has said police officers will not be involved in conflicts arising from bribery and handouts in political rallies.

“It is not upon police officers to mediate bribery contracts. And it is not the job of police officers to follow up false promises made by politicians and mediate conflicts arising from those false promises. It is upon political leaders to conduct themselves decently and manage their affairs effectively,” he said.

The minister blamed the recent violence witnessed in political rallies across the country to bribery, handouts and unfulfilled promises.

Matiang’i yesterday said unlike before, there were no reports of members of public being mobilised on ethnicity grounds and political ideologies. He added that save for terrorism challenges, which he said were real, the country was generally safe and peaceful.

“The endemic false promises of money to the people, incredible amount of bribery and ferrying young people to rallies and sometimes mismanaging those organising the meetings on the ground remain a challenge to the security agencies,” Matiang’i said.

Speaking after meeting a multi-agency team to discuss election preparedness in Nairobi yesterday, he said the country was generally safe adding that security agencies have already presented a report on their preparedness.

The CS added there was substantial level of tolerance in the country where aspirants can move to any part of the country to campaign. He, however, said security agencies should not be drawn into such issues.

False promises “Reports indicate that different groups are bribed and ferried to rallies and some fight over bribes.

“It is not the job of the police to mediate conflicts arising from such false promises. But from the security perspective, there is nothing to worry about,” he said.

“Don’t drop the guard. The threat of terror is real and out there. We have foiled many terror plans through public cooperation but we call for continued help to tame this challenge,” he added.

To deal with hate speech, the minister said they had agreed to have a multi-agency framework of collaboration and deploy officers.

“We are going to be more present in public meetings and campaign rallies. We will have more of our officers from the DCI and NCIC embedded in some of these political activity to detect crime, when it is committed and document evidence to support prosecution of such cases,” he said.

Unmet promises Matiang’i dismissed reports that security agencies were frustrating and even causing chaos at some of the rallies and reiterated the need to respect public servants.

“Do not drag public servants to the political streets. You are the only one who has the opportunity to keep lying because public servants have no platform,” he said in reference to the recent attack on Uasin Gishu County Commissioner.

Intelligence reports and preliminary investigations into the recent cases indicate that there have been four incidents of violence in the past months. He said the team will henceforth be meeting on a monthly basis to review the election preparations.

Those present included police, officials from Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) chairman Samuel Kobia and the intelligence community among others.

The National Police Service (NPS) has in the past blamed for some of the violence witnessed in the country