The Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) has issued a statement after a video showing a soldier repeatedly striking a police officer several times on the head with a closed fist went viral on April 27.
The nearly a-minute video shows a group of KDF soldiers brawling with police during a clash that occurred at Likoni Ferry in Likoni, Mombasa County, as a dozen people watched.
Reportedly, the incident on Saturday afternoon started after the officer from the National Police Service (NPS) tried to cool down a scuffle between a private guard and the liable KDF soldier in the viral video.
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Unfortunately, his messages of peace were like whispers in the howling wind as, instead, the serviceman from the special operations brigade of the Armed Forces turned and poured all rage on him.
The brawl escalated when their counterparts, some looking distressed and enraged, and after payback, entered the fight to rescue their own.
The video captured the KDF soldier also punching the first officer in the face and shoving another, and the two police officers and the private guard are nursing injuries at a local hospital even though the video shows both were striving to bring peace between them.
“This is too much! This is too much!” a bystander member of the public and supposedly the recorder of the video is heard.
The KDF soldiers, who were on their way to Kenya Navy Mtongwe base, particularly remain chilled as the clip ends.
KDF addressed the incident online a few minutes before midnight, acknowledging the disorderly conduct of its soldiers and that there is an ongoing investigation:
“To establish the circumstances leading to the incident, Military Police and requisite investigation agencies are currently handling the matter,” it posted.
The Military Police in Kenya is a uniformed law enforcement branch of the Armed Forces that exercises police functions with powers to arrest and detain KDF soldiers.
This latest happening has renewed debate over a long-standing national policy that presses for cooperation between local policing authorities and the military to keep society safe and maintain peace at all times.
It was merely a week ago when some KDF soldiers got into an all-out brawl with police officers from Lodwar Police Station who attempted to initiate a traffic stop but, allegedly, they failed to yield, leading to pursuit and finally arrests in a story that sparked national headlines.
