Parading Of Injured Cops A Disastrous Propaganda

Following Monday’s IEBC protests that CORD staged countrywide, and that turned murderous with police accused of turning brutal against peaceful demonstrators. According to confirmed reports with grapevines having bigger numbers, a total of three people were shot dead by the police with scores hospitalized with serious injuries.

In what apparently seemed like an order from above, the officers dispersed the crowds using live bullets as opposed to teargas and water cannons that they’ve been using in the past protests leaving to the bloodbath.

In what would be read as a grave warning to the relentless opposition, the police applied ultimate force in containing the situation. The brutality got to the extreme that the silent foreign envoy and human rights lobby groups came out of their mansions to condemn the government for using force.

US ambassador, Goddec, led in calling for a quick solution condemning the brutal police force on citizens.
Despite video evidence showing protestors staging peaceful demos before the police disrupting with teargas and live bullets, the police insisted most of the protestors were violent forcing them to use live ammunition.

The cops being received by CS and Police IG at the Wilson Airport

In a bid to justify the killings in Nyanza, the police did what has now lived to become the biggest muff of the decade, decided to airlift ‘injured’ officers from Kisumu to Nairobi for specialized treatment.

Undoubtedly, the event was given maximum publicity with senior security officers from Permanent Secretary to Police IG being on standby at the Wilson airport to receive the injured police officers. All media houses were giving up to the second updates, government social media accounts giving up to microseconds update, the hashtag commandos were pushing the injured cops hashtags, shedding all tears in the world.

Meanwhile, photos from Kisumu Airport where the injured officers were to board their choppers, showed a different story, the officers seemed okay with bandages to their arms to signify slight injuries if there were any.

A journalist covering the event from Kisumu Airport pointed how comical it was to watch one officer who was limping to the chopper then suddenly remembered he had left his luggage behind, dashed off as fit as a fiddle before coming back limping.

The hawkeyed Kenyans on social media sensed foul play pointing out blunders. Most of the injured officers were seniors in the ranks, traditionally in violent situations; the senior officers wouldn’t take front lead exposing them to danger.

Nearly all of them were injured to the arms and specifically to the left, a coincidence that threw all eyebrows up the forehead. Officers who were pictured walking to the choppers by themselves in Kisumu on reaching Wilson now couldn’t walk by themselves, had to be helped and taken away in stretchers. All red flags.

Instead of taking the officers to the Forces Memorial where injured officers are treated or even Kenyatta Hospital the government’s facility, they were taken to a down small hospital in Nairobi West; some commentators even called it a brothel hospital whatever that is.

The thing here is, this was a misguided propaganda meant to gain public sympathy and justify the brutality and killings of the police an issue that was piling pressure on the state from local and foreign bodies.

However, this move that would also be read as a justification for police brutality on citizens shortly acted in the opposite by humiliating the police force which before the public should be seen as immortal and robust enough to protect them.

Now here we saw brutalized police who were now overpowered by civilians with rungus and stones yet the police had guns. The police in this move came out as overwhelmed by the demonstrating civilians. It would also expose the police for future assaults should any protest arise.

The desperate measure led to even a hopeless situation, and now we have a weak police force before the face of the world which isn’t the case. If the officers were indeed injured Jaramogi referral hospital in Kisumu or Eldoret, have the capacity to handle such. Using the police to score political points is misguided and ended up deflating the police muscles before the public eye. A deadpan propaganda gaffe.