The National Police Service has strongly refuted viral claims that officers will resort to live ammunition due to a tear gas shortage, despite officially acknowledging severely depleted anti-riot stockpiles.

A volatile wave of misinformation has swept across Kenyan social media platforms, forcing the highest echelons of the security apparatus into an aggressive defensive posture. The line between public safety and public panic is incredibly thin.

In recent days, digital posters have circulated wildly on X (formerly Twitter) and WhatsApp, maliciously alleging that the police, having exhausted their supply of tear gas canisters during the protracted Gen Z demonstrations, have been officially authorized to utilize live rounds on civilian protestors. The National Police Service quickly flagged these notices as completely "fake and not true." This matters immensely because in a heavily polarized political environment, such unchecked rumors can instantly ignite preemptive violence, plunging the capital back into the chaotic, deadly street battles witnessed in mid-2024.

The Reality of Depleted Arsenals

While the live-bullet directive is categorically false, the underlying premise regarding the police arsenal contains uncomfortable truths. Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja recently made a sobering admission before the parliamentary Administration and Internal Security Committee.

• Stockpile Exhaustion: The IG confirmed that the relentless nature of recent riots has fundamentally depleted the NPS stock of crowd control equipment.
• Budgetary Appeals: Kanja has officially requested critical, expedited funding for the 2026/27 financial year to procure more tear gas and armored mobility vehicles.
• The Core Objective: He explicitly noted that replenishing this non-lethal equipment is absolutely paramount precisely to "ensure that police officers do not resort to live ammunition."

Adding a bizarre twist to the logistical nightmare, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen revealed that the government is actively hunting down civilians in illegal possession of state-issued teargas, hinting at deep-seated corruption and collusion within the police ranks.

A Regulatory Tightrope

The Kenyan police force is currently navigating an unprecedented crisis of public trust. The brutal suppression tactics deployed during the 2024 Finance Bill protests, which resulted in dozens of fatalities, triggered massive international condemnation and strict High Court injunctions barring the use of brute force and water cannons.

For East Africa, Nairobi's handling of civil unrest is heavily scrutinized. Investors and regional partners require a stable Kenya, but not at the expense of gross human rights violations. The state must now balance the urgent need to maintain public order with a legally binding mandate to protect the constitutional right to peaceful assembly, all while operating with a severely compromised logistical framework.

"The equipment is necessary to protect lives, but the spread of deliberate misinformation remains our most immediate threat."