Suspected goons escape after attacking All Saints Cathedral on Friday, June 12, 2026. /CCTV
Head of the Anglican Church of Kenya, Jackson ole Sapit, has challenged security agencies to swiftly arrest suspects linked to the invasion of Nairobi's All Saints Cathedral, warning that top police chiefs should resign if they fail to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The Archbishop spoke on Sunday following an incident on Friday in which suspected goons stormed the church compound along Valley Road and disrupted a conference attended by civil society groups.
According to Sapit, CCTV footage captured clear images of some of the attackers, making it possible for investigators to identify and apprehend them.
"Why have we witnessed in the recent past, this is the second Anglican church to be attacked, we have seen other churches, we have seen people attacked in meetings and funerals and it seems nobody wants to expose who owns these goons," he said.
The Archbishop described churches as sacred spaces that should be respected, expressing concern over what he termed a growing trend of violent disruptions targeting religious institutions and public gatherings.
Security footage showed the first group of attackers arriving on motorbikes at about 9.39am while a post-budget meeting was underway.
Police officers responded within minutes and managed to push the group out of the church compound, allowing the meeting to continue as participants discussed budget proposals presented by Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi the previous day.
However, the attackers allegedly regrouped outside the compound before returning at around 10.11am.
After abandoning their motorbikes, they are seen in the surveillence footage walking back into the church grounds before storming the conference area and disrupting the proceedings.
Some attendees were harassed and robbed as they attempted to flee. Sapit warned that the emerging "goon culture" posed a serious threat to national stability and could worsen as the country approaches the 2027 General Election.
"It's ironical that we sent our police force to Haiti to go and maintain law and order in a country that was overrun by goons in that nation. Whether we were successful in that mission or not, the question is, if we can go out and contain goons in another country, why are we allowing goons in our country to override and to take center stage in our nation?" he posed.
The Archbishop singled out Director of Criminal Investigations Mohamed Amin and Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja, insisting that visible faces and motorcycle registration numbers captured on CCTV should provide sufficient leads for arrests.
"Where the CCTV cameras have exposed their faces, where motorbikes they were using number plates are visible, they have to be brought to book. If they don't, and not only them, together with their sponsors, the DCI and Inspector General of Police have no business sitting in those offices," he said.
"They should resign as an honourable thing and Kenya must ask itself, are the police the ones in charge of our security or are goons?"
Responding to the incident, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen termed the attack unfortunate and said detectives were analysing CCTV footage to identify all those involved.
Murkomen confirmed that one suspect had already been arrested and that police were pursuing other individuals captured in the footage.
"We will take those people to court and they will be held to account. Our next phase of security operation is to exterminate this threat of gangs and I want to promise the nation that with the Nairobi Metropolitan Police, we are going to succeed," he said.
The Interior CS added that similar operations targeting gang activity in towns such as Nakuru and Kitale had yielded positive results.
