Rights group expresses fear over June 2025 protests, claims State planning to deploy goons
Kongamano La Mapinduzi National Spokesperson Oyoo Sungu said that their quest for justice in the country will not falter.
A civic engagement group, Kongamano La Mapinduzi, has expressed fears that the State could be planning to deploy a well-organised criminal group to harm protesters during the planned June 25 demonstrations.
In a presser on Monday, the group, which was flanked by officials from Boniface Mwangi’s Ukweli Party, warned that the government will bear responsibility should any protester get killed or injured.
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According to Kongamano La Mapinduzi Spokesperson Oyoo Sungu, there is no accountability for state crimes under President William Ruto's administration; however, their quest for justice in the country will not falter.
"We fear that there might be a third armed force- a militia recruited, armed and forcefully embedded alongside the Kenya Police and other security services to do the political bidding of president William Ruto and the cabal that is helping him repurpose the Government of Kenya and state system into a criminal enterprise," said Sungu.
Kongamano La Mapinduzi is demanding full disclosure by the Inspector General of Police, Douglas Kanja, of what transpired on June 25, 2024, concerning who gave the orders leading to the killing of peaceful protesters, abductions, disappearances, torture, and murder of government critics.
Kongamano La Mapinduzi National Spokesperson Oyoo Sungu speaks during a press briefing on Monday, June 23. (Photo: Justine Ondieki)
"We want to be informed about armed political militia groups operating within official police deployment. In addition to ongoing murder cases and ongoing inquests, we demand that judicial inquests must be started for all those killed in the June 2024 protests," Sungu demanded.
According to the group, a parliamentary inquest should be formed to look into the conduct of the presidency to establish culpability for their bloody response to the June 2024 protests and subsequent crackdown on government critics and protestors.
In a separate statement, Nairobi Regional Police Commander George Seda has refuted allegations that police officers were in cahoots with goons who infiltrated last week's protests.
During the demonstration calling for the resignation of Deputy Police Inspector General Eliud Lagat, an armed gang took the frontline position in confronting the peaceful protesters while under the watch of police officers.
Seda explained that it was difficult to differentiate between goons and genuine protesters; thus, police officers took a cautious approach, as arresting individuals without clearly determining their motive could have escalated the situation.
"The goons and the police had no relations. There is a team we have sent to determine what it is that made them band together. Goons were not in our briefing, and it was also difficult to differentiate between the goons and protesters. Normally, we have diversionary issues in terms of how people work. We have been seeing goons attacking us with stones, they might have changed to using the fimbos (sticks) in their attack," said Seda.
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