'System shields killers': Kalonzo indicts police watchdog over Gen Z protest deaths

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Wiper Patriotic Front leader Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka has accused the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) of sabotaging justice for Gen Z protest victims, saying the watchdog admitted in court to burying evidence in the killing of Rex Masai.

Kalonzo accused on Tuesday, June 24, 2026, in a statement marking the second anniversary of the June 25 protests, in which young Kenyans stormed Parliament to oppose the Finance Bill 2024.

"IPOA admitted before the courts to grave investigative failures in the case of the first young Kenyan killed during the Gen Z protests," noted Kalonzo.

He told Kenyans that IPOA acknowledged the bullet removed from Masai's body was never collected, cartridges from the scene were never recovered, critical closed-circuit television footage was never secured, the alleged murder weapon was never retrieved, and key witnesses were never adequately protected.

"The officer charged in the case may ultimately walk free, not because he has been found innocent, but because the evidence required to secure justice was never gathered," observed Kalonzo.

He described the failures as a stark illustration of a system that too often shields perpetrators while failing victims, a striking rebuke of a body Parliament established precisely to check police excesses.

Masai was 29 years old when he was shot on June 15, 2024. His case had been held up as a test of whether Kenya's oversight institutions could deliver accountability after security forces killed protesters. Two years on, a conviction looks increasingly unlikely.

Kalonzo, a former vice president who says he personally secured the dropping of terrorism charges against arrested protesters at Kamiti Maximum Prison, called on the government, Parliament and the security apparatus to account for every life lost and every person who disappeared.

He also called on police and all security agencies to exercise maximum restraint ahead of and during the June 25 commemorations, warning against the use of live rounds or interference by hired goons.

Beyond the accountability question, Kalonzo endorsed a six-point agenda put forward by youth groups for the anniversary and renewed his call for June 25 to be gazetted as a national public holiday to be known as Liberation Day.

He reserved pointed criticism for Parliament, noting that 186 members of the National Assembly stayed away from the chamber when the Finance Bill 2026/2027 came to a vote, the same day it was signed into law.

"The abdication of their primary responsibility is clarifying. Kenyans now know with precision who is with them and who is not," added Kalonzo.

He saluted the 40 members of parliament who voted against the bill, among them Wiper Patriotic Front and Azimio La Umoja One Kenya members, as well as United Democratic Alliance members aligned with former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua's Democratic Change Party (DCP).

Kalonzo also demanded a public apology from the presidency, saying reparations without accountability were insufficient to heal the country.

"Compensation without accountability is insufficient. Reparations without a public apology from the highest office in the land cannot heal the wounds inflicted upon our nation," he told Kenyans.