Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifunahas said his faction has formally notified police of an upcoming political rally in Kakamega, dismissing claims that security agencies were kept in the dark about their recent activities.
Sifuna insisted that due process had been followed and claimed that authorities were attempting to shift blame following the chaos that marred a rally in Kitengela last Sunday.
Sifuna, who was speaking on the floor of the House on Thursday, said he had personally shared the notification letter addressed to the Officer Commanding Police Division (OCPD) in Kakamega, adding that he even forwarded the communication to the Senate’s official WhatsApp group.
In a pointed swipe at Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, Sifuna said the former senator remains in the group and regularly reads messages.
“Murkomen is still on the Senate WhatsApp group because he’s a former senator. I have sent the notification for the Kakamega rally that we have made to the OCPD of Kakamega to his WhatsApp number, and I’m going to send it to the Senate WhatsApp group so that he cannot come and tell the country tomorrow that he was not aware that we are going to have a meeting,” Sifuna said.
His remarks came after Murkomen, speaking in Nakuru on Wednesday, claimed police had not been briefed about the political rally in Kitengela, where violence broke out as officers attempted to disperse crowds.
The Kitengela rally was organised by the rival ODM faction led by Sifuna and attended by several politicians led by Embakasi East MP Babu Owino, Siaya Governor James Orengo and ODM Deputy Party Leader Godfrey Osotsi.
Chaos erupted during the event after police lobbed teargas and fired shots to disperse the crowd. Following the rally, Sifuna confirmed that one person was fatally shot, blaming police action for the death.
“We lost a life needlessly. We lost a life because of police action, not because there was something wrong that we were doing,” he said, calling for accountability from officers involved in the operation.
Sifuna further maintained that all individuals implicated in what he termed excessive use of force should be held to account, saying security agencies must not operate with impunity.
He was responding to a statement sought by Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei from the Senate Standing Committee on National Security, Defence and Foreign Relations regarding the status of investigations by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) into alleged extra-judicial killings and abuse of police authority.
Cherargei had raised concerns about rising organised criminal gang activities and sought updates on measures being taken to address insecurity.
However, Sifuna dismissed the inquiry as hypocritical, arguing that systemic challenges facing IPOA were already well documented.
“As a member of the Committee on National Security, I find this inquiry quite hypocritical because I am aware that IPOA has already told us the challenges that they are facing in bringing rogue police officers to account,” Sifuna said.
He listed several obstacles cited by IPOA, including lack of cooperation from police officers under investigation, refusal to surrender firearms for ballistic analysis, and failure to record statements.
He also pointed to inadequate funding and chronic understaffing, noting that IPOA has only 77 investigators tasked with overseeing a police service of more than 125,000 officers.
According to Sifuna, IPOA has also raised concerns about parallel investigations by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the Internal Affairs Unit, which he said interfere with independent probes.
Additionally, he claimed the government has failed to put in place adequate witness protection mechanisms.
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