The Directorate of Criminal Investigations has launched a hunt on suspected criminals who invaded and looted property during the protests called to oppose the now-rejected Finance Bill 2024.
Several properties were attacked and looted as another group of protesters raided Parliament on June 25. Others invaded City Hall and the Supreme Court.
A number of private shops were looted in the process.
The DCI said Monday that when the Kenyan youths (Gen Z) organized nationwide peaceful protests to exercise their democratic right rejecting the proposed 2024/2025 Finance Bill, other groups with criminal minds took advantage of the situation and devised schemes to cause harm and economically frustrate fellow Kenyans.
Posing as demonstrators, the bad elements who were also well-organized earmarked several business premises including boutiques, electronic shops, and supermarkets, breaking in and massively looting to the detriment of innocent business owners.
“As a criminal investigative agency, it squarely falls within the mandate of the DCI to investigate and bring to book any persons involved in such outright criminality, which not only robbed numerous Kenyans their means of livelihood, but also worked towards compromising an otherwise crucial constitutional right.”
“In that regard, the DCI’s Imaging and Acoustic Unit domiciled at the National Forensic Laboratory has since retrieved numerous CCTV footages that captured identifiable persons, whose felonious acts isolates them from the hundreds of thousands that stuck to their course,” the DCI said in a statement.
The statement said whereas some have already been arrested and arraigned in various courts today, more are still out there on the streets waiting for other opportune times to strike again, causing more damage and risking the lives of innocent citizens caught up in the course of quelling the crimes.
“We can flush them from amongst our numbers because they do not share the principles that define what we stand for, and more so for the sake of those who did not deserve to lose their only means of livelihood in this manner.”
“Do you know any of them? Please report to any police station or #FichuakwaDCI by calling our toll-free hotline 0800 722 203,” the statement added.
This came as a group of business operators in the city said they are ready to share footage of the suspects behind the attacks on their property on that day.
The group under the Nairobi Youth Business Community said whereas the president said property worth Sh2.4 billion was looted or destroyed, they wish to correct the figure upwards to Sh3 billion.
“This has affected businesses In general and will see many lose their jobs.
We have images and cctv footages of the goons we believe took advantage of the otherwise peaceful protests to loot.”
“We are ready to share the footages with authorities for their actions and wish to appeal to the police to pursue those behind the same for justice,” the group said at a press conference in Nairobi.
They also appealed to the politicians to calm down the temperatures in the country for the sake of stability and progress.
