Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) Leader Rigathi Gachagua has written to Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja demanding that all police officers deployed to Ol Kalou ahead of Thursday’s parliamentary by-election operate in uniform, accusing sections of the security apparatus of planning to interfere with the electoral process.
In a letter dated July 15, 2026, Gachagua said the deployment of more than 2,000 police officers to the constituency was unprecedented, but insisted that all officers should be identifiable through uniforms, service numbers and marked police vehicles.
He argued that while the heavy deployment should guarantee security, it should not be used to intimidate voters or political players.
“The 2,000 police officers deployed must be uniformed, they must display their service numbers, they must not be hooded and they must use clearly marked police vehicles. We have noted the deployment of over 2,000 police officers in Ol Kalou; this is unprecedented in the history of elections in our country,” Gachagua wrote.
The former Deputy President also alleged that recent incidents of violence during the campaign period involved plain-clothes police officers rather than supporters of political parties.
He cited several incidents, including an alleged attack on DCP officials at the Royal Garden Hotel in Ol Kalou on July 1, an alleged pepper spray attack on the party’s campaign team on July 9, damage to a campaign sound vehicle on July 11, and an alleged assassination attempt on East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) MP Kanini Kega on July 13.
“The security challenge in Ol Kalou and across Kenya isn’t too much about the goons but the plain-clothes rogue police officers outside of your command. Yesterday afternoon, you issued a statement warning young people in Ol Kalou to remain peaceful and not disrupt the elections. Far from it, Ol Kalou campaigns have been peaceful. Any incident witnessed so far has been caused by your rogue police officers in plain clothes,” he stated.
Gachagua further claimed that some officers had been deployed with instructions to interfere with voting, intimidate election agents and influence the outcome of the by-election.
“They have been specifically sent to disrupt the commencement of voting in the morning, disrupt voting, intimidate and harass agents, disrupt counting and tallying of votes and ensure that the UDA candidate is announced the winner,” he alleged.
The DCP leader urged the Inspector General to order the immediate withdrawal of all plain-clothes officers deployed to Ol Kalou, saying the National Police Service should remain neutral and focus solely on maintaining law and order during the election.
He also reminded the police leadership of Section 12 of the Election Offences Act, which prohibits the use of public officers or national security organs to induce or compel voters to support a particular candidate or political party.
The Ol Kalou parliamentary by-election will be held on July 16, 2026, to elect a new Member of Parliament following the vacancy in the constituency after the death of David Kiaraho.
