The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) has condemned attacks on police officers by members of the public.
The Police oversight body argues that the increasingly recurring assaults are likely to entrench anarchy and chaos in the country.
IPOA said these criminal actions will not be tolerated as they disrupt the dispensation of security services and inconvenience law abiding Kenyans, including the attackers who by constitutional right ought to access quality policing services.
“With an operational police service and a robust judiciary in place, it is unacceptable for anyone to take the law into their own hands,” a dispatch from IPOA stated.
The press statement released by head of Communication and Outreach Department Mr. Dennis Oketch, said the attacks will hamper police reforms when members of the public perpetrate the same offences they complain about when the police commit them.
Oketch urged members of the public facing challenges to report to their offices, saying that it has clear mechanisms and structures for receiving and investigating public complaints against police.
IPOA says it has been vocal in castigating the police for unprofessional conduct and recommending their prosecutions where officers are found culpable and added that members of the public should also conduct themselves with dignity and follow the due process.
A tuk tuk operator was over the weekend caught on camera assaulting two police officers in Nakuru town who had ordered to him to stop at a police roadblock.
In a video that went viral on social media, the tuk tuk operator was seen hurling stones at the officers and dragging one of them on the road.
By Bernadette Khaduli
