Gov't did not hire goons, other interests sponsored them to burn parliament - Wilson Sossion

According to Sossion, the government would have no ill intent to burn a critical structure of the republic such as Parliament and they cannot sponsor goons to disfigure it.

In his view, he said that "other interests" took advantage of the demonstrations and assigned the goons to cause the damage witnessed.

"That is a wrong allegation and there is already detailed report that indeed other interests sponsored these syndicate groups and the government would have no interests whatsoever in sponsoring goons to burn parliament," he said speaking to Citizen TV on Monday.

He further argued that police officers exercised restraint and did not fire at the charging young protesters, despite a few shot dead outside parliament buildings.

Sossion added that the police should not be blamed for the breaching of parliament since they had been long overpowered by the crowd.

"We cannot say it is the police that allowed it. When you have such a huge group pulling down a fence and surging into Parliament you could not expect the police to shoot at the citizens in fact the police exercise a lot of restraint and retreated," said Sossion.

The hiring of goons has been a raging debate during the protests that have occurred over the last three weeks as peaceful protesters have distanced themselves from the destruction of property and looting of businesses.

Politicians have been accused of hiring the goons even as a group of disgruntled youth came out to demand payment after claiming to have been hired by politicians to participate in the protests on July 2.

Youths flocked Uhuru Park grounds on Sunday, the site of the Shujaaz Memorial concert, dressed in black and waving Kenyan flags to honour those killed during anti-government protests.

Protesters erected white makeshift crosses bearing the names of Kenyans who died during anti-tax protests. The crosses were adorned with the Kenyan flag.  

While the state claims that 25 people have been killed and 400 have been injured, rights groups believe the numbers are higher. 

According to the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), at least 43 people were killed during the demonstrations, and over 600 were injured in varying degrees.