Police lobbed teargas at the Amalemba Grounds in Kakamega moments before the anticipated Linda Mwananchi rally led by Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna, raising fears of a possible confrontation.
Images reviewed by The Kenya Times on Saturday, February 21, showed police officers dressed as civilians, disrupting preparations for the highly anticipated political rally.
The disruption, however, did not deter the organizers from proceeding with the much-publicized rally in Western Kenya. Several political leaders joined the Nairobi senator, including Embakasi East MP Babu Owino and Siaya County Governor James Orengo, among others.
Tensions Rise as Police and Sifuna Differ on Rally Plans
Earlier on Saturday, Kakamega police warned that lawlessness would not be tolerated and that peace would be maintained to avoid potential violence.
“We cannot accept lawlessness here. We cannot accept our country going to the docks. We have every kind of information… armed with rifles. That’s what we have been told,” said Western Regional Police Commander Isaak Mahoud.
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Isaak added that Sifuna had not officially informed them of the expected rally, and no formal request for assistance had been received from the rally organizers.
“We have never met anybody who was talking about that rally. Nobody has come to my office requesting any assistance. But we’ll assist them as much as we can tomorrow.”
Sifuna, however, argued that he had written to the Kakamega OCPD and shared a notice with Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen via WhatsApp notifying him of the planned rally.
He also added that he had circulated the notice on the Senate WhatsApp group, in which Murkomen was still a member.
“Since Murkomen remains on the senate WhatsApp group as a former senator, I have shared the notice of the notice for the Kakamega rally both in the group and directly to his personal WhatsApp number, so he cannot later claim he was unaware of the event, as he did with the Kitengela rally,” Sifuna stated.
Past Attacks on Sifuna’s Rallies
Earlier, a truck donated for the rally was stoned at Kona Mbaya Trading Center on its way to Kakamega on Friday, 20th.
Panic ensued as the driver struggled to keep the vehicle on the road, while an assistant ducked toward the truck’s floor to avoid being hit.
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Despite the attack, Edwin Sifuna Babu Owino and James Orengo insisted that the rally would go ahead as planned, noting that the incident would not derail the event.
This comes after the incident that happened on February 15, 2026, at the Kitengela rally attended by thousands of supporters, where one Vincet Oyamo, 28, was killed by police.
Autopsy reports by government pathologists have revealed that he died from a gunshot wound to the left eye, which fractured his spinal cord and damaged his brain.
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