By Peter Ochieng
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has issued a warning to Kenyans captured on camera engaging in crime during two weeks of anti-Finance Bill protests organized by Kenyan youth.
Suspected criminals, the DCI said, took advantage of the situation so as to harm other Kenyans economically.
The Mohamed Amin led agency says bad elements engaged in looting and destruction of property as other Kenyans protested peacefully.
“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,” said DCI.
“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.”
DCI in a statement on Monday said it will investigate and bring to book any persons involved in such outright criminality, which not only robbed numerous Kenyans of 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.”
Some suspects, the DCI said, have been arrested and arraigned in various courts, adding that more are still out there on the streets.
“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.”
The number of people allegedly killed by police during two weeks of anti-Finance Bill 2024 protests has been revealed.
DCI’s statement came even as six national associations of content creators, journalists, lawyers, medical practitioners, and human rights defenders, revealed that 24 people had died as a result of either being shot or brutalized by the police, as of Sunday night.
In addition, at least 361 had reported several injuries alongside 32 abductions.