President Kenyatta defends police action against NASA demonstrators

President Uhuru Kenyatta has defended the conduct by police against National Super Alliance demonstrators saying that security officers are expected to defend themselves when attacked.

The president questioned why protesters attacked a police station, “yet the Jubilee presidential candidate does not  reside there”, adding that there was no need to bring about destruction in the name of peaceful demonstrations.

Speaking at a campaign rally in Nyeri on Sunday, President Kenyatta also sent a message to NASA leader Raila Odinga saying that Raila could traverse as many countries as he wished but that Kenya is ruled from within the country.

“Let foreigners come for tourism and trade but let them not interfere with the politics of Kenya which is the will of the people,” said President Kenyatta.

The Head of State insisted that the October 26 repeat presidential election will go on and urged his supporters to come out in large numbers to vote.

“We will have sent our opponents home by 8am, so let us come out in large numbers, and please do not let me down,” said Uhuru in a plea to Nyeri residents.

President Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto were on a campaign tour where they made stopovers in Nyahururu, Karatina and Nyeri town.

On Friday, October 13, two people were shot dead and two others sustained gunshot wounds after they stormed a police station in Bondo, Siaya County with crude weapons, according to area police boss Paul Kiarie.

Similarly, on the same day, police used teargas to disperse protesters in the country’s three main cities during anti-IEBC demos. This was after Acting Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i had declared the Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu city centres out-of-bounds to protesters.