Political activist and revolutionary Booker Omole has initiated a protest agaist the nomination of Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki as the new deputy president.
In a statement on Tuesday, October 22, 2024, Omole, who is the Vice-chairman of the Communist Party of Kenya party, said that Kindiki’s hands are full of blood hence he cannot be allowed to become the second in command.
“Professor (Kithure) Kindiki is the enemy of the Kenyan people. We must never accept a deputy president whose hands are full of blood of innocent Kenyan people. We just don’t reject the nomination of Professor Kindiki as the deputy president-elec, but we also reject the vote crowd in parliament that continues to be used by the Kenya Kwanza regime to undermine the Kenyan people,” he stated.
Kindiki has been highly blamed for the death of over 60 Kenyans during the anti-government protests between June and August.
According to a report released in September by six prominent human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, six people were killed on June 25 when Kenyans breached Parliament security and occupied parliament buildings, while 72 were either abducted or remain missing as a result of the protest.
The report noted that the six were confirmed to have been shot dead, while 61 fatalities were documented throughout various protests in 2024.
“The level of violence and disregard for human rights during the protest is unacceptable,” Amnesty International said in its report.
“The authorities had ample time to prepare for a peaceful protest, but instead, the response was characterized by excessive use of force.”
67 cases of enforced disappearances have been lodged this year, with 40 cases resolved so far, leaving 27 still unresolved.
The International Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU) has conducted 49 autopsies on victims of the protests.
According to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), human rights organisations facilitated the “release of over 300 persons illegally detained” on June 25, 2024.
“As of the end August, the Law Society of Kenya had documented 72 people that had been abducted, released, or were still missing in relation to the protests. Thirteen disappeared on June 25, and a further twenty-three went missing within seven days of this protest,” the report read in part.
Amnesty International’s weapons experts identified that law enforcement used various firearms and crowd-control weapons, including G3, AK-47, Galil-pattern rifles, and CZ Scorpion EVO 3 submachine guns.
