Deal with gangs ruthlessly, Ruto tells police graduates

President William Ruto has challenged Kenya Police Service (KPS) graduates to deal with political gangs ruthlessly as the country heads to the 2027 General Election.

Ruto, speaking at the Kiganjo Police Training College on Friday, August 28, said: “The National Police Service (NPS) and all our security agencies should therefore take firm, lawful, and impartial action against anyone who finances, organises, incites, or perpetrates political violence.''

“Do not arrest only the young person holding a weapon while allowing the person who recruited, transported, and paid him to escape responsibility.”

According to him, sponsored violence has no place in a democratic state like Kenya, adding that no politician is allowed to have a private militia providing them with security and that no political objective can justify violence.

“Article 37 of our Constitution protects the right of every person, peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, demonstrate, picket and present petitions to public authorities. That right must be respected and protected.”

The President, challenging the police to do more to protect Kenyans, said that the Constitution does not protect arson, looting, assault, intimidation, or the destruction of public and private property.

“You must neither criminalise legitimate dissent nor excuse violence committed under the cover of politics.”

According to Ruto, the 2027 Election should be secured without compromising on the democracy that Kenyans will be seeking to exercise while electing leaders.

“Political competition must be a contest of ideas, policies, and leadership - not a contest of hired gangs, intimidation, and ethnic mobilisation.”

He added that Kenyans must be allowed to decide who they want to elect freely and peacefully, with police playing a key role in helping achieve it.

The President also said that Kenyans should be free to attend political gatherings, listen, question, criticise and choose what they want to do.

“The police and other security agencies have a clear constitutional responsibility: To protect the democratic space in which Kenyans exercise these freedoms.”

On politicians, the President said that they are at liberty to plan meetings and campaign in all parts of the country, adding that the recently reported incidents of goonism were a concern for the entire nation.