UDA MP Differs with William Ruto, Asks Police to Shoot to Kill Goons during Protests
- Belgut MP Nelson Koech has explicitly asked the police to shoot with the intent to kill the alleged perpetrators of violence and destruction during protests
- The lawmaker's remarks, deemed incendiary, came a day after President William Ruto issued a command to law enforcers to use their firearms to immobilise goons attacking civilians
- According to Koech, the president was being lenient by allowing the police to shoot but not kill, saying such hardened criminals deserve death
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Kai Eli, a journalist at TUKO.co.ke, brings more than three years of experience covering politics and current affairs in Kenya.
Belgut MP Nelson Koech has angered Kenyans after his insistence on the police to shoot suspected goons with the intent to kill.
Source: Twitter
Speaking on Thursday, July 10, in his constituency, the lawmaker implied President William Ruto was being lenient to criminals by sanctioning the police to shoot them in the legs when they cause mayhem during protests.
According to Koech, who is also the chairman of the National Assembly's departmental committee on Defence, Intelligence, and Foreign Relations, the perpetrators of violence deserve no mercy, and their fate should be instant death.
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"I want to thank President William Ruto for saying yesterday that the police should shoot but not kill; I want to repeat it here, in fact, shoot and kill. You cannot have someone coming after your life, and you do not want to shoot and kill. You cannot have someone who is going to terrorise you and your family, and you are telling me you cannot shoot and kill," said a visibly incensed Koech.
Koech, seeking to qualify his argument, said that criminals undertake their aggression without empathy or regard for life.
He said such can only be equalled by lethal force from the police.
Why criminals infiltrating protests must be killed - Nelson Koech
The lawmaker averred that anyone harbouring the thought of invading police stations and such critical government installations as parliament and State House is not an ordinary criminal.
Those, he unapologetically said, could only be neutralised by the pull of a trigger.
Unsolicitedly addressing the question of human rights, Koech said the police were trained to assess the situations in which they can apply force and put their firearms to use even when it blatantly threatens a life on the receiving end.
"You cannot have someone who is coming after your businesses, armed and with weapons, and you want to tell me that you cannot use shoot and kill. Their constitution, the police act, has given the police the powers to use their arms, where they have evaluated the risk of their lives is in danger, and I want to say these people have been terrorising people. Anyone who wants to go to a protected area like the State House is not an ordinary person. That is a criminal, that is an armed person that must be dealt with with equal force, and the only force that applies to such people is to shoot and kill," he said.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
