Nairobi Woman Rep. Esther Passaris has defended police officers seen in a viral video leaving a looted shop with laptops during Tuesday’s chaotic protests in Nairobi’s Central Business District.
The clip, which has stirred public outrage online with Kenyans suggesting that they too were also looting, shows uniformed officers loading laptops into a police vehicle amidst unrest sparked by protests in honour of the late teacher Albert Ojwang’.
However, in a sharp rebuke to those claiming the officers were stealing the gadgets, Passaris claimed the video had been taken out of context and the officers were recovering stolen goods.
“I have just spoken to the Regional Police Commandant in Nairobi, Mr Seda. The laptops looted from the electronics shop were recovered and are now safely in police custody,” said Passaris in a statement posted Wednesday morning.
“Nation Media, your headline saying ‘police leave with laptops’ is misleading. The right word is ‘recovered’, not ‘leave’,” she added.
