The military could still be deployed to help quell street protests, as an order issued last year during youth-led demos is still in force. 

The revelation came as Defence Cabinet Secretary Soipan Tuya denied claims that the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) had plotted a coup against President William Ruto’s regime following demos that erupted on June 25. 

On Wednesday, Tuya disclosed that the gazette notice that allowed the deployment had not been lifted. 

“No. The deployment has not been revoked! There is a matter actively in court,” Tuya told senators.  

“But I’d also want us to, again, remember that the deployment of June 2024 [was] in support of the national police service, just like the other secondary operations that are within the country.”  

She went on: “There were gazette notices defining the scope, duration and the confines within which KDF were to operate.” 

Violent protests 

The disclosures imply that President Ruto, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, could unleash the military on civilians in the event of violent street protests. 

At the height of last year’s protests, the National Assembly approved the deployment of KDF officers within the country to restore order. 

In a June 25 gazette notice, the Defence CS cited Article 241 (3) (b) of the Constitution to declare the deployment of KDF in support of the National Police Service. 

“The Kenya Defence Forces is deployed on June 25, 2024, in support of the National Police Service in response to the security emergency caused by the ongoing violent protests in various parts of the Republic of Kenya resulting in destruction and [breaching] of critical infrastructure,” the notice said. 

Tuya was responding to questions from senators during a question-and-answer session during the plenary. 

Lawmakers pressed her to disclose whether the gazette notice that okayed the deployment of the military had been revoked or was still in place. 

“Armies are trained to fight, kill and die for the motherland. That is the basis of the training of KDF. When, in July 2024, KDF was unleashed on our streets, what was the battalion? Was the gazette notice on their deployment revoked?” posed Enoch Wambua (Kitui). 

On June 25, angry young protesters, or Gen Z as they were called, invaded Parliament in an unprecedented action that shocked the world. 

The relentless and leaderless Gen Z demanded the withdrawal of the harsh 2024 Finance Bill that proposed higher taxes. 

On claims that the military had plotted to stage a coup, Tuya dismissed them as “baseless”. 

The newspaper article “was baseless, inaccurate and reckless”, she said. 

Coup claims 

Tuya was responding to Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna, who had sought to know what was inaccurate in a media report that opposition chief Raila Odinga had rescued President Ruto’s government from collapse. 

“What in your view or in the view of the ministry was inaccurate in the report by the Daily Nation regarding the very possibility of this country being handed over to the military in the event the regime collapsed in July of 2024” posed Sifuna. 

The newspaper had sensationally claimed that Raila had rescued Ruto’s government from a military coup. 

The Defence Ministry responded to the article by saying that the claims were “false, baseless, unfounded, misleading, and reckless”. 

The ministry emphasised that the KDF was a professional and apolitical institution “that upholds the highest standards of integrity, discipline, and service to the nation”. 

The military, Tuya said, is deployed to restore stability with the approval of the National Assembly as provided for in the Constitution.