‘Protests will happen spontaneously without any notification to police’ – Sifuna
Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna has said that Azimio la Umoja Coalition will no longer issue a protest notice to the police in the coming days.
Speaking on Citizen TV on Thursday, March 30, 2023, Sifuna said that there was no point in issuing a notice if the police will term the protests illegal.
"The purpose of notification to police is to invite them to protect or to provide security for the protesters but we have in our experience realized it doesn't matter how much you comply with the law. We have complied with the law the Public Order Act Article 37 they are still going to unconstitutionally declare our protest illegal," Sifuna said.
Sifuna added that Azimio protests will henceforth happen spontaneously anywhere anytime without any notification.
The Nairobi senator said that they have realized that whenever they invite the police to provide them security they end up meting out violence on them instead.
"So what we have done is we are no longer going to issue notices. Let us exercise our right under Article 37. Protests will happen spontaneously anywhere anytime without any notification to the police because we have realized that the notifications are no longer invitations for them to provide security but they are an invitation for them to visit violence for us," he added.
Peaceful protests
The Nairobi senator insisted that Azimio protests are usually peaceful until police intervene to disperse demonstrators.
"But for police action, these protests would be peaceful. Remove police action and you will see, our people will come to town they will dance at KICC the way we came to Uhuru Park to swear in Baba," Sifuna said.
