Hundreds of officers sent to Nyanza as party agents

About 1,600 Administration Police officers were sent to Nyanza to work as PNU agents in the General Election.

They wore plain clothes to disguise themselves, according to the Waki Report. But the agents were recalled after violent protests from residents, which saw some of them killed or injured.

The report termed the move a “gross abuse of power” by “those who initiated the exercise”. “This can have no legitimate explanation or legal basis and in all probability was unlawful,” said the report.

The behaviour of senior police officers was influenced by factors outside the chain of command.

In the case of the AP agents, evidence was given that around December, a large number of officers were assembled at the Administration Police Training College at Embakasi to be trained in acting as agents during polling, a move initiated by top State officials.

Disrupt polling

They were sent on December 24 to Nyanza, ostensibly to disrupt polling and possibly ensure Government support.

The officers were easily identified because they were not from the community and travelled in large groups by chartered buses.

Head of the Public Service Francis Muthaura told the commission the deployment was approved by the Government for “security reasons”.

“The explanation failed to resonate with commissioners given that there was little or no security issue in Nyanza at the time, the exercise was clandestine in appearance and execution and fell outside the overall elections security command and control arrangements led by the Commissioner of Police,” the report said.

The report also documents a case in which the Commissioner of Police ordered release of suspects on at least two occasions in Nyanza. One related to the arrests of criminal gang members, including Chinkororo and Sungusungu.

It is assumed the directive was because a senior politician was behind the gang.

Hate literature

On another occasion, two Kisumu politicians leading a procession around Kondele without serving notice were arrested, but after the Commissioner of Police instructed local police to release them.

Another case of police interference in the election happened on the Iten-Kabarnet road. A vehicle was searched and they recovered several bundles of hate literature in the form of posters carried by four other police officers.

The posters showed drawings of then ODM presidential candidate Raila Odinga armed with a pistol and hanging senior politicians from the area.

A further curious situation was when the commission examined the Coast Province plan for policing elections.

Titled “Presentation on the 2007 General Election Operation within Coast Province”, it showed some police officers were to be deployed at a provincial radio room to receive results of presidential, parliamentary and civic candidates from all districts and send them to police headquarters.