A wave of outrage was yesterday directed at police who in many ways behave exactly like brutes.

Rev.Timothy Njoya himself believes the two men, who clobbered him and broke his arm, were policemen.

Speaking from his hospital bed yesterday, he said he suspected they were from the Presidential Escort Unit or had been hired by people higher in rank than the Commissioner of Police. He says they had firearms.

Curiously, a crowd of uniformed policemen stood by as the cleric was felled by vicious blows to the body. None made any attempt to rescue him.

Yesterday, a chorus of condemnation of the violence visited upon the Rev Njoya and other peaceful demonstrators rent the air with everybody refusing to believe the two were not plainclothes policemen.

Kimilili MP Mukhisa Kituyi has already hazarded a guess: He says one of these assailants is an AFC Football Club fan and the other belongs to the dreaded Jeshi la Mzee controlled by a city MP.

The National Council of Non- Governmental organisations, the Law Society of Kenya and the Kenya Human Rights Commission, MPs James Orengo and Prof Anyang' Nyong'o described the violence as extreme provocation.

They demanded the immediate arrest and prosecution of the suspects.

But Cabinet Minister Shariff Nassir condemned the "very shameful act of street demonstrations". He described religious leaders, lawyers "and the so-called human rights organisations" as hypocrites "as they were the perpetrators of yesterday's (Thursday) violence".

"I'm deeply appalled - as a good Muslim - to learn that a Muslim leader could go to Majengo and Pumwani estates to recruit youths to participate in the mayhem.

The demonstration, which was meant to coincide with the budget speech, was to protest at President Moi's suggestion to refer the Constitution review process to Parliament.

The LSK said the pictures of the violence on the demonstrators which were splashed in newspapers and on television screens brought out vividly "the great threat to ordered life which is paradoxically posed by the Kenyan police".

But Commissioner Abong'o denied saying he had ordered that they be sought and arrested.

He said they suspected the two suspects were among the people whom the Catholic Archbishop Ndingi Mwana a'Nzeki referred to as "unwanted elements" deliberately set to provoke violence.

In its statement, the NGO council restated its stand that "freedom, participation and liberty will triumph over autocracy, repression and backwardness because they are ideas whose time has come".

"The council wishes to ask: What did the President think as he sat in the august House while the sounds of gunshot rang outside? An invasion of his country by a foreign army or his people killing and maiming his people?"

Mr Orengo said that Thursday marked the first stage of mass action.

"Stage Two will be Saba Saba and Nane Nane (July 7 and August 8) until Kanu and the government raise their arms in surrender to the will of the people"

The LSK asked police to reconsider their current partisan enforcement of the law, their contempt for the human dignity and the constitutional allocation of the state power.

"They are under a constitutional duty to offer protection to those demonstrating peacefully against policies of other parties or of their government," said chairman Kamau Kuria.

Prof Nyong'o said the beating of Rev Njoya "by the Jeshi la Mzee demonstrates quite clearly that the Moi regime has a non-official paramilitary force that will keep it in power at all costs."

He called for the immediate setting up of the Constitution Review Process under the auspices of the NCEC as agreed at the Thika Blue Post Conference earlier this year.

The NCEC on its part expressed disgust at the Thursday violence and said police actions were meant to terrorise Kenyans into submission, in the false hope that they would give up the struggle for constitutional reforms.

It said its investigations had revealed that Archbishop Ndingi called of the planned demonstration because his life had been threatened.

The Council called for investigations and punishment of those guilty of battering Rev Njoya.

The Rev Njoya, who was discharged yesterday afternoon, said the demonstrators had stopped marching and sat on the road on meeting the policemen, but two people started shouting that the march continues.

"At this juncture, I sensed danger and told the crowd to disperse, but the two were trying to outshout me and insisting the march goes on."

He said that as the people turned back, the two men believed to be policemen joined the security men and were not harmed. It was at this time the police charged at the crowd.

"One of the men slapped me on the side of the face, as the other hit me with a rungu on the other side narrowly missing my ear," he said.

Comments\Views about this article