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A statement from Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja that “the service is deeply concerned [about] the ongoing allegations that police officers are involved in abduction of persons in Kenya” is inexplicable and puzzling.

The IG is right in his clarification that the constitutional mandate of the police is not to abduct but to arrest criminal offenders, further citing provisions of the Service Standing Orders requirement that all arrests be recorded for subsequent arraignment in court or suspects be released if the procedural threshold is not met.

However, it’s undeniable that abductions, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings have been on the increase, more so after the massive countrywide protests that broke out in June as the national government adamantly sought to impose burdensome taxes through the Finance Bill, 2024.

The protests reached a crescendo on June 25 when protesters, mostly Gen Zs and millennials, overpowered the security cordon and broke into Parliament buildings, sending lawmakers scampering for their safety just minutes after voting to adopt the controversial money bill.

Amidst an unprecedented crackdown on suspected leaders, the street protests seemed to have all but petered out as President William Ruto frantically reached out to other political formations and influential opposition leaders to buttress his flagging regime. When the President announced a new Cabinet, he reappointed only six of his former Cabinet secretaries to substantive ministerial dockets, as he also brought on board new faces, including five from the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party of opposition leader Raila Odinga.

It was clear that the Gen Z-led demonstrations had upended the country’s political landscape, and challenged the President to act decisively if he was to restore public trust in his leadership.

For some time, withdrawal of corruption-related cases against Ruto’s allies had become the order of the day in anti-corruption courts, as the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions applied to terminate prosecution of one corruption suspect after another.

Signs that Kenya’s demographic shift and dividend – an increasing number of well-educated, tech-savvy, and connected young people – were becoming impatient, restless and cynical seem to have escaped the country’s renowned intelligence service, or if filed, were routinely ignored by an establishment that seems to be permanently in denial.

Then came the bombshell, a bolt from the blue, days after the President had been sumptuously garlanded and bedecked with lovingly handcrafted fresh laurels in the Unites States.

The hungry and angry populace wanted him out. For the first time since 2022, the darling of the West, with an established reputation for hobnobbing with powerful world leaders IN their glittering capitals remained confined within the country, not for a few days but for months, but even still not able to move freely in his own country as his administration sought to figure out the hydra-headed political monster that had engulfed his government, threatening to consume it altogether.

President Ruto breathed a sigh of relief with the formation of the broad-based government. His decision to abandon the controversial money bill was lauded as the political clincher that would persuade the restive youth from further agitation. After successive attempts to press on with protests came a cropper, pro-establishment analysts began predicting that the administration had at last found an antidote to the powder keg that had sparked the deadly demonstrations.

But it was an illusion, what, borrowing from a Smokey Robinson album, could be christened ‘the quiet storm’. Like the genre of R&B that comes in smooth, romantic, jazz-influenced style, the public outrage President Ruto thought he had snuffed out had reemerged, not on the streets this time around but on WhatsApp and TikTok social media platforms. And it seems to be driving the regime crazy.

The IG appears to admit as much. Even as he denied that his officers were involved in the abductions, the IG tellingly dedicated a paragraph to admonishing those not exercising their freedom of expression with responsibility!

— The writer is the Executive Director of the Kenya National Civil Society Centre; [email protected]