Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua will only be allowed to hold his planned meeting at the Kamukunji grounds in Nairobi on Thursday if he or his party has made the requisite notifications to the police for adequate security deployment.
Police said the Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) had not notified them of the planned rally.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen maintained that the government will not allow unsanctioned public rallies to disrupt peace and business in Nairobi during Gachagua’s planned return.
“If they have given the notification, we have absolutely no issue with any person, political party, or any politician calling for a meeting.
They just need to give the notification, and they must ensure their meeting is peaceful and does not lead to situations of disrupting the peace for others or burning of property or looting or violence,” said Murkomen said in Nyandarua.
“If you burn a police station, you burn government cars, whether county or national, you burn a police office, you burn somebody’s supermarket—there is no other charge we can bring before the court.
The best charge is those related to terror because that is exactly what you’re doing.”
He also defended the move by the government to prefer terrorism charges against suspects of arson on government property, as well as those arrested on allegations of looting businesses during demonstrations.
