Uhuru reads riot act to police chiefs over crime

By LORDRICK MAYABI | May 16, 2013

The president summoned the top 70 security chiefs to State House, Nairobi where he demanded to know what they were doing to end the security menace which has left dozens of Kenyans killed and many more wounded/PPS

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 16 – President Uhuru Kenyatta has read the riot act to security chiefs following rising crime across the country.

The president summoned the top 70 security chiefs to State House, Nairobi where he demanded to know what they were doing to end the security menace which has left dozens of Kenyans killed and many more wounded.

And for the first time, police chiefs from all the eight provinces were in the same meeting unlike previously when the president only met the Inspector General, his two deputies and the CID Director.

Western, North Eastern and Nairobi provinces are the worst affected by the wave of crime experienced in the country in the recent weeks.

Before the State House meeting, Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo held a crisis security meeting with top police bosses seeking to find a solution to rising crime and insecurity around the country.

The meeting at the CID Training School in South ‘C’ brought together all the eight provincial police chiefs and formational commanders.

The Deputy Inspectors General for the Regular and Administration Police bosses – Grace Kaindi and Samuel Arachi – as well as the CID director Ndegwa Muhoro also attended the meeting.

Although Kimaiyo had on Wednesday insisted that the security situation in the country was not escalating, there have been considerable incidents of insecurity across the country.

In Nairobi for instance, Nairobi County Transition Coordinator Eliud Baraza was shot dead by unknown assailants on Monday morning on his way to work.

On Tuesday a police officer and a government driver were shot dead by gunmen who also shot and wounded a businessman in robberies in South ‘B’ and South ‘C’ estates.

In Mandera, gunmen shot and killed a police officer and a civilian in an attack at a police station last Saturday night, hours after the government deployed the military to disarm militia in the restive border town after eight people were killed in ethnic conflict.

In recent weeks, at least 10 people have been killed and more than 100 injured by machete-wielding gangs who attacked villagers in Bungoma and Busia Counties.

In Trans Nzoia District police are still investigating a case in which residents of Kiungani area and Kitale town woke up to threatening leaflets that was dropped in those areas.

Trans Nzoia police chief Kimani Mitugo told Capital FM News that no suspect had been arrested since then but police were following crucial leads.

Mitugo said that they did not expect a spill over of attacks in Bungoma and Busia Counties into Trans Nzoia.

“We are urging the public not to panic, we are a looking carefully at the situation and also monitoring what is happening in neighbouring Bungoma County,” said Mitugo on phone.

Elsewhere, police have launched a major manhunt for six hardcore criminals who escaped from a police station in the Tana Delta early on Thursday morning.

The suspects facing various robbery with violence cases escaped from Gamba police post at about 2am.