Siaya police defend use of live bullets on protesters

Police in Siaya County now say the move to use live bullets to disperse anti-IEBC demonstrators on Monday was informed by the shortage in teargas canisters and rubber bullets.

Siaya County Police Commander, Crispus Mutali, said that the police officers acted in self defence after the crowd started charging towards them armed with crude weapons.

He said that this was the only option as they had run out of teargas canisters and rubber bullets.

“Police officers had restrained themselves from using the live bullets until when the irate protesters broke the County Commissioners’ gate and stormed into the compound where they tried strangling one police officer,” said Mutali.

The killing of two protesters and injuring of over ten others has sparked criticism across board with members of the opposition Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) and human rights groups calling for the charging of the officers involved.

Siaya Deputy Governor, Wilson Ouma Onyango, has appealed to the Jubilee administration to take action against the officers.

The Deputy Governor was speaking when he visited several victims of the Monday demonstrations who are hospitalized at Siaya Referral Hospital.