Police accuse NASA of making false alarm on office raid

The National Police Service has accused the Opposition National Super Alliance (NASA) of raising a false alarm over an alleged raid on its premises in Nairobi.

On Friday night (August 4), NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga’s Director of Communications, Dennis Onyango, released a statement claiming that Opposition offices had been raided by police officers.

“A few minutes to 8 pm Friday, police in hoods and armed with AK47 and machine guns raided different offices that host operations of the Opposition National Super Alliance and held staff, mostly young university and college students on internship hostage, forcing them to lie on the floor for hours then took away all their equipment,” read Dennis Onyango’s statement.

“Terrified workers at the various installations where the raid was conducted said they counted up to 30 men in hoods who took away mobile phones, note books and work identity cards. The raiders also broke down and ferried away surveillance cameras, desktop computers, computer servers, Ipads and laptops in addition to taking photos of the identification documents of all the staff.”

“Before leaving, the officers said they would never return what they took away,” he added. 

Onyango added that the raiders also took details of each of the NASA staff, including their full names, areas of residence, place of birth and where they went to school.

“The raiders did not present any warrant of arrest. They jumped over the fence and demanded total co-operation from the terrified young employees warning that non-co-operation could result in shooting and murder.”

The police, however, say that the alarm raised by NASA is untrue and was meant to cause public disorder and disturbance.

“Our attention has been drawn to claims in the media that Police officers broke into some offices belonging to a political party on the night of Friday 4th August 2017,” said police in a statement.

“These allegations are untrue and further wish to state that no such report of a burglary has been made to any Police Station.”

“We invite anyone with any information regarding the break in as alleged, to inform the nearest Police Station for immediate investigations,” added the statement signed by Kinoti George (AIG), on behalf of the Inspector General.