LSK decries police crackdown on Kenyans protesting Finance Bill

The Law Society of Kenya has condemned the move by police to interfere with the peaceful protests organized by Kenyans in Nairobi on Tuesday over the Finance Bill 2024.

The Society’s President Faith Odhiambo, in a statement, accused Nairobi Police boss Adamson Bungei of open disregard of notification of Tuesday’s protest from the organizers. She hit out at police for using excessive force on Kenyans exercising their right to protest.

“The running battles and use of teargas on protestors that we have seen images of this morning are a despicable affront to the rule of law,” charged Ms Odhiambo

She says, under the Constitution, the protesters only needed to notify authorities about the date, time, and place of the protest for purposes of ensuring the security of both protesters and the public, and therefore the police boss had no justifiable reason to reject the notification to picket.

“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,” said the LSK boss

“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,” added Ms. Odhiambo

LSK has demanded that the city police commander call off his directive and instruct his officers to stand down from making any arbitrary arrest or meting violence against the protestors.

Ms. Odhiambo disclosed that the lawyers’ umbrella body is closely monitoring Tuesday’s events and will take legal action against Bungei and any officer who violates the rights of the protestors.