Kisumu County Commissioner John Elungata has said they had sufficient intelligence that the anti-IEBC protests that left one dead and 22 nursing injuries would be peaceful.
He said the planned peaceful protests were hijacked by group of radicalised people with an unknown agenda.
He said: “Those who were armed with machetes and slings during the demonstrations were gangs intending to send a message to their rival factions.”
He added that other rowdy youth were being used by local leaders to drive their own political agendas.
“They were being used by some political leaders to undermine efforts made by the current county government, with ambitions of endearing themselves to the electorate,” the commissioner said at the Tom Mboya Labour College where he closed a workshop by the Kenya Congress of Pentecostal Churches.
He warned that such protests would only water down gains the county has painstakingly made towards development.
He described as unfortunate the looting of Tumaini supermarket, adding that it was an act of robbing Peter to pay Paul or doing damage to oneself.
He also maintained that the man said to have been felled by police was “stabbed by a sharp metallic object by a fellow protester”.
H added that the protest was used by gangs to proclaim their turfs.