Lead image for Deal with gangs ruthlessly, Ruto tells police graduates.
President William Ruto has challenged Kenya Police Service (KPS) graduates to deal with political gangs ruthlessly as the country heads to the 2017 General Election.
Ruto who was speaking at the Kiganjo Police Training College on Friday, August 28, said that sponsored violence has no place in a democratic state like Kenya.
“The National Police Service (NPS) and all our security agencies should therefore take firm, lawful, and impartial action against anyone who finances, organises, incites, or perpetrates political violence,” said the President.
“Do not arrest only the young person holding a weapon while allowing the person who recruited, transported, and paid him to escape responsibility.”
He stated that no politician is allowed to have a private militia providing them with security saying that no citizen is above others to have the right to intimidate them.
Ruto also said that no political objective can justify political violence while challenging the police to do more to protect Kenyans.
“Article 37 of our Constitution protects the right of every person, peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, demonstrate, picket and present petitions to public authorities. That right must be respected and protected.”