Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has urged the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) to exercise caution in its public pronouncements, warning that issuing conclusions before completing investigations could damage the credibility of their own findings.

Murkomen defended police officers deployed during the recent wave of violent protests, saying they had every right to use force where necessary.

“I gave a clear policy direction to the IG that police officers also have a right to use their ammunitions to defend themselves and to defend the life of others,” he said on Saturday in Kabarnet, Baringo County,

The CS said those involved in the attacks on police stations and courts were not peaceful demonstrators but dangerous individuals armed with petrol bombs and intent on causing destruction.

“We also need to know that these people were carrying petrol bombs and stealing guns and burning courts and burning police stations. These are not ordinary citizens, so IPOA should call them out,” Murkomen said.

He questioned how IPOA could allege excessive force without accounting for the scale of violence inflicted on police facilities and officers.

“You cannot, therefore, say there was a disproportionate use of force, because you have not measured the force of the petrol that was used to burn Kikuyu Police Station, for example, or Ol Kalou Police Station,” he argued.

Murkomen raised concern over the fate of detainees who perished in one of the targeted stations.

“You haven’t even said something about the remandees or suspects that were in the police station in Ol Kalou, where they were burned to death by these people,” he noted, pointing out the silence on victims of the mob.

He called on IPOA to reflect carefully before releasing any public statements, noting that premature commentary could weaken the integrity of their own probes.

“I encourage IPOA to become very careful with their statements they issue because the investigative responsibility is in their own hands. Because then they are likely to jeopardize their own investigations if they pass judgment before they do the investigations,” he warned.

Murkomen challenged IPOA to back any accusations with specific evidence.

“Then Kenyans will ask, where is your file that indicts any police officer specifically? And you know this is specific to a police officer,” he said.

He also said the police were following policy orders and not acting on their own, hence deserved legal backing from the state.

“We have also said in the situation that the police officers were operating in my policy directions, all those police officers must be given legal representation just in case they are going to be called to answer, because they were not doing that on their own,” he stated.

The Interior CS said the government would not protect any rogue officer, but it would also not let down those who risked their lives defending Kenyans.

“Whereas we will not cover up for someone who committed heinous acts, we will also not abandon our police officers who are protecting our nation,” he said.

Murkomen expressed doubt over the credibility of claims made by families of those who died during the protests, pointing out that everyone seems to insist their loved one was innocent.

“It is very interesting that everybody who is complaining about everyone who died, everyone is saying, my child was in the shop, they were buying scratch card, they were doing this,” he said.

He asked where the perpetrators of the arson and destruction were if all those arrested are being defended.

“These people who burned police stations, who burned shops, who burned goods — who are these people and where are they?” he posed.

Murkomen said human rights defenders and the legal fraternity had only focused on those arrested and charged, ignoring victims of the unrest.

“Everybody we have arrested and charged, every human rights person, Law Society of Kenya, are coming to defend them. So I’m asking, who will defend these people whose properties have been burned, who will defend the court, who will defend the police station, who will defend the police officers?”

He ended by calling for an honest, national conversation that does not shy away from accountability on all sides.