State unleashes goons to beat and rob protesters, residents

They stormed the city centre armed with knives and clubs.

The goons terrorised protesters and other Kenyans going about their business as police officers egged them on, once again exposing the depths President William Ruto’s administration will sink to stifle dissent.

The crooks, brought in on motorbikes, rained terror on innocent people, robbing them and striking them with clubs as the police watched.

The thugs vandalised shops, too, all in full glare of law enforcement agents, who escorted them in police vehicles, a brazen show of impunity by a police service under intense scrutiny over its brutality.

The most depraved act was the shooting of an unarmed Kenyan by a masked police officer at close range, a mockery of the very reason young Kenyans staged yesterday’s protest – the murder of Albert Ojwang’, a 31-year-old teacher, in police custody.

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The police officer’s choice of dressing, a balaclava to conceal his identity, further exposed his intention to operate like the goons he was helping commit crimes.

On Saturday, Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja fired a chilling threat at protesters ahead of this week’s round of demonstrations, sparking suspicions that he was involved in the deployment of goons.

“Last week, they caught me unawares. Let them come back. Let them try again. We will protect the capital city,” Sakaja said in Turbo, Uasin Gishu. “Haven’t they announced the day they will be coming (protesting)? Let them try to touch anyone’s business or property.”

Farouk Kibet, Dr Ruto’s personal assistant, also issued the same warning, urging Sakaja to continue in his quest to prevent the protests.

“They say they have started a holiday to burn Nairobi. Will they burn the country when we are around? What protest allows burning down other people’s protests?” Kibet chimed in.

And as though to validate these claims, the goons would chant victoriously as they passed by Sakaja’s office at the City Hall, singing, “Igwee.” Armed with crude weapons, they sang praises for Sakaja

“Sakaja tumelinda jiji. Hatuwaogopi. Wakuje sasa,” one is heard shouting in a viral social media post.

Both Sakaja and Kibet blamed, without evidence, former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua for last week’s protests. Many allegations, which The Standard could not independently verify, linked Sakaja to the goons who infiltrated last week’s protests, burning two vehicles.

He was the subject of similar allegations yesterday, especially given his threatening remarks. He could not reached for comment.

While Sakaja’s alleged role is unknown, what is beyond doubt is that the police were working in cahoots with the goons, with whom they patrolled the streets. The Standard could not reach the police service to establish whether what seemed like a joint operation between law enforcement officers and goons had been officially sanctioned or why the goons were not arrested.

Social media was awash with videos claiming to show goons getting instructions at police stations. Others showed them getting clubs from unknown persons.

The thugs got a taste of their medicine when protesters and members of the public repulsed them and assaulted a few. Two motorbikes belonging to the goons were also torched.

Hussein Khalid, a rights activist and CEO of Vocal Africa, said he had been assaulted by the goons. He is among the foremost participants in the protests that seek justice for Ojwang’s death.

“Just been accosted by goons on Kenyatta Avenue who roughed me up kiasi before I escaped and crossed the road to the other side. After I escaped, I managed to take a video of them walking on towards GPO,” Khalid wrote on X.

Hanifa Adan, a journalist and rights activist, said she had also been assaulted, posted: “This is a very dangerous road we’re headed to. State-sanctioned militia.”

Many condemned the unholy alliance between police officers and goons, enabled by the state.

“We are now witnessing a disturbing reality: police officers colluding with hired goons to attack peaceful protesters demanding justice for one of our own. This is not law enforcement, it’s state-enabled violence. In a country where extra-judicial killings go unpunished, we must ask: who are our leaders really serving?” Henry Ohanga, a rapper more popular as Octopizzo, posted on X.

Gitile Naituli, a university professor of leadership and management, said it was evident that the government was “sponsoring crime”.

“They should stop because they risk radicalising young people and easily spark a revolution. The government should not involve itself in committing a crime. It is sending a wrong message to Kenyans,” he said.

Ruto’s government has faced similar criticism for procuring goons to terrorise citizens. During last year’s youth-led revolt, thugs partnered with police officers to assault protesters. It was impossible to tell security agents apart from goons, as they dressed the same.

Plainclothes officers wore balaclavas and roamed in unmarked vehicles, abducting young Kenyans, amid criticism that they operated “like thugs". And armed gangsters would patrol several towns to quell the nationwide protests against proposed tax hikes. Police officers would adopt the same silence as these goons, bearing pro-government placards, looted businesses and robbed Kenyans.

Similar claims featured during the opposition’s anti-government protests in 2023.

Before then, former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko had admitted how the government would deploy goons to opposition protests to malign them. 

"During the ODM demonstrations in 2017, I... and other members of the deep state, printed ODM t-shirts and procured second-hand vehicles and burnt them down along Ngong' Road so that everyone would think it was ODM (burning them down), but it was the system doing that," said Sonko.