Sunday August 6, 2017
The NASA tallying centre in Westlands in Nairobi on Saturday where laptops and other equipment were carted away. The centre was vandalised by balaclava clad men on Friday night/JOSEPH NDUNDA
The NASA coalition has said the raid at one of its tallying centres on Friday night was carried out by elite military force.
Siaya Senator James Orengo on Saturday named five of the officers who took part in the raid, saying they were all from "tribes friendly to the ruling regime".
They are; Corporal Leonard Mbarongo, Corporal Clinton Nyaga, Corporal Richard Serem and Chief Inspector Francis Kimemia.
"We are talking about the military being involved in elections and now we can see how this is being carried out.The recruitment of that elite force needed characters who are regime friendly - who are friendly to this particular government, and who come from particular ethnic groups," Orengo told a mammoth NASA rally at Uhuru park.
He stated that the alleged police officers used a white vehicle bearing the number plates KAV 855.
"These people arrested two of our friends, American John Phillips Aristotle and another who are now back at home but they should know that we will not be stopped or intimidated," he stated.
Police have maintained that no such raid took place.
He said the nature of the activity that the raiders carried out suggests that they were looking for the names of staff and tallying agents all over the country.
Orengo said there has been attempts to persuade the officials to discard their engagement with NASA or report to, or simply be recruited to do the work for Jubilee.
"And that is why the method they used was Gestapo methods where you come in balaclavas and not a warrant, you don't specifically state what you are looking for - you simply break furniture and take away what you want," Orengo said.
But he emphasized that NASA has several tallying centres and that most of the information that the raiders were looking for was not at the Westlands centre, and was not lost.
"Kenya is a multiparty constitutional democracy and what is happening here is lawful, is in the course of legitimate political objective and therefore there was no basis at all for the police to come here and raid," Orengo said.