By Tajeu Shadrack Nkapapa
The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) has come out to condemn the Nairobi Region Police Commander who has instructed officers under his command to interfere with the peaceful protests organized by Kenyans outside Parliament Buildings today over the Finance Bill.
The running battles and use of teargas on protestors have been witnessed around CBD, where LSK termed the act as a despicable affront to the rule of law.
“We are particularly shocked that Mr. Adamson Bungei, on a frolic of his own, has elected to ignore a notification of the protest from the organizers under the guise of lack of form. We wish to sound our unequivocal warning to Mr. Bungei and all officers acting under his command from taking any act of aggression against the protestors in the name of giving effect to this unlawful, unreasonable, and irrational directive,” Faith Odhiambo, LSK President said on X.
“We note that the form for a Notification as provided under the Schedule to the Public Order Act merely requires provision of information pertaining to the particulars of the applicant, and the date, time and place of the protest,” she added.
According to Mr. Bungei his authority to reject a notification is for purposes of ensuring the security of both protesters and the public.
“The alleged discretion to invalidate a notification for want of meeting a self-determined threshold is a nullity, and any acts done on account thereof are an illegality. We demand that Mr. Bungei calls off his directive immediately and instructs his officers to stand down from making any arbitrary arrest or meting violence against the protestors,” LSK President stated.
The Law Society of Kenya promised to closely monitor the protest and take legal action to find Mr. Bungei and any officer who violates the rights of the protestors on account of his instructions personally liable for any breaches of the Constitution and the National Police Service Act.
“We therefore demand that you retract the statement and allow the protests to go on as planned restricting yourselves to only providing security to the citizens of Kenya during the protests,” read the statement in part.