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Kenya

Kianga praises military intervention in poll violence

NAIROBI, July 14 – The Chief of General Staff Jeremiah Kianga appeared before the commission probing the post election violence on Monday and strongly defended the military’s action in quelling the post election violence.

Kianga said he has no regrets whatsoever to make over the manner in which his soldiers handled the skirmishes.

“From our point of view, we did what we had to do and it was done as it ought to have been done because the soldier gets deployed in internal security work and when he goes, he really has to work,” he said.

“All the soldiers that we sent behaved without exceeding their mandate and without hurting Kenyans, and to that extent we say we did a good job.”

The military chief said the intervention of the soldiers was mainly limited to clearing debris on highways and offering humanitarian assistance, particularly in the Rift Valley.

“This included clearing roads that had been blocked and transporting officers who could not access some parts of the country,” he said.

Administration Police Commandant Kinuthia Mbugua who also testified at the commission says all AP’s who took part in suppressing the violence were taking instructions from the Police Commissioner.

“When we are operating with the police at the district level for example, all the AP’s would be put under the charge of the OCPD, at the national level, commissioner of police would now produce such orders.

“For the case we have in point that is the post election violence, the orders would for example now emanate from the commissioner of police for all the security agents,” he said.

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Police commissioner Major General Mohammed Hussein Ali was the first to testify at the commission led by Justice Philip Waki.

He equally praised his officers and said they did a ‘commendable job.’

“My officers acted within their legal mandate and did not at any time misuse their firearms. Were it not for the action we took, the chaos would have degenerated to a crisis,” he told the commission during his testimony last week.

Director General of the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) Michael Gichangi is scheduled to testify this Thursday.

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