Former police spokesperson Charles Owino has thrown his weight behind Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen’s order that police should gun down people attempting to burn down police stations.
Speaking during a vernacular TV show on Sunday, June 29, 2025, Owino stated that the police officers should be commended for exercising remarkable restraint during the last protest.
“The burning down of police stations in the country will never happen again. Citizens must know that the guns handled by police officers are not flowers, and they are allowed to use them when the circumstances demand so,” Owino said.
Firearm use
“The peace we enjoy in this country is so expensive. Even if my child were killed for attempting to burn down a police station, I would not bother to go and collect his body from the scene. I have no time for you,” Owino remarked.
The former police spokesperson indicated that what Murkomen said was simply a bitter truth which most Kenyans do not want to accept, noting that only guns give police officers the ability to protect life and property.
Murkomen’s remarks have drawn sharp criticism from a section of Kenyans, who insist that the CS has no authority to order police officers, and that the move could exacerbate extra-judicial killings.
Raila condemns statement
On Sunday, June 29, 2025, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga condemned the remarks made by Murkomen that were widely interpreted as a shoot-to-kill directive to police officers during the recent protests.
Speaking during a church service in his hometown of Bondo, Siaya County, Raila condemned the statement, warning that such utterances threaten constitutional freedoms and could amount to criminal behaviour by state officials.
“Tumeona umwagikaji wa damu nyingi sana hapa nchini. Watu waliokuwa na haki ya kuandamana, wengine wao walikufa. Anybody giving instructions to a police officer that mtu akikaribia police station piga risasi…. we should not encourage, talking a way of life, in a way that is not constitutional. somebody is committing a crime, that person should be subjected to..that person should be taken to court of law and charge him… and then sentence him,” Raila said.
Translation: “We have witnessed a lot of bloodshed in this country. People who had the right to demonstrate–some of them died. Anybody giving instructions to a police officer that ‘if someone comes near a police station, shoot them’ –we should not encourage that. It is taking a human life in an unconstitutional manner. If somebody is committing a crime, that person should be taken to a court of law, charged, and then sentenced.”
