Kenya’s Inspector General of Police, Japheth Koome, resigned yesterday amid mounting pressure and controversies surrounding his tenure. It is without a doubt that the police chief’s tenure atop the Vigilante House was marred with a lot of negativism related to his overbearing nature, incompetence, and corruption in the police force. However, it is clear that the police chief was pushed to resignation by the ongoing demonstrations in Kenya which stemmed from President William Ruto’s proposed Finance Bill 2024 that ended up creating havoc in Kenya. The economic master-plan for the next year that was being propose by the president and his contingent of MPs was thwarted by Kenyans due to its inconsiderate nature as it sought to increase the prices of foot, fuel, and basic services as well as taxation of Kenyans. The bill eventually sparked a lot of protests especially from the youth of Kenya with the epitome of the demonstrations being the storming of the Kenyan parliament. The Kenyan youth stormed into parliament, burnt a section of it and even made out with the mace.
In retaliation the police at first were using teargas canisters but when the situation got out of hand they started using live ammunition and eventually killed many demonstrators. There are hundreds of videos showing the Kenyan police brutalizing the Kenyan protestors who seemed peaceful. The police were also accused of attacking some towns in Nairobi namely Rongai and Githurai where they fired hundreds of bullets leaving may people wounded and dead including a 12 year old boy that was shot 8 times. Besides, the police were also accused of arresting, kidnapping, and abducting some of the protests leaders with evidence of any wrongdoings.
These atrocities committed by the police all mounted up and who was to blame; the police chief. By all means his handling of the situation was so poor. His incompetence and the death of many civilians who were peacefully protesting without a doubt led to yesterday resignation. The demonstrations that were led by Kenyan Gen Z across the country were mismanaged by the Kenyan police and eventually got out of hand in areas like Nairobi, Eldoret, Mombasa, Mtwapa, and Thika where groups were ganging up and destrying public property. The police could do anything to manage the situation. When it was all said and done all blame landed on the IG of the police.
These demonstrations coupled with other factors like his handling of security issues, particularly in bandit-prone areas such as the North Rift region and internal conflicts within the police service led to many deeming him unable to manage the country’s security personnel.
These combined pressures and controversies ultimately led to Koome’s resignation.
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