RESIDENTS WANT KIMAYIO TO SMASH COPS-CROOKS CARTEL IN KISUMU

Truly speaking, something is terribly wrong with Kisumu security apparatus.

Sample this: A senior administration police officer is robbed at gunpoint at the city’s CBD, moments later,  he rushes to make a report at the nearby Central Police Station and to his astonishment, he bumps into a man he believes he spotted during the daylight robbery.

The man he positively identifies,  turns out to be a CID officer attached to the same police station.  A team is quickly  assembled under the instructions of the regional police  boss led by the neighbouring Nyando DCIO to probe the matter.

But strange things begin to happen. Multiple sources, from within the police, the same day,  indicate that the junior CID officer has declined to go for identification parade despite earlier communication to the complainant to that effect.

Journalists from various  media houses who get wind of the juicy story  rush to the Nyanza police headquarters.

They are forced to pitch camp at the offices only leaving in the evenings for two days to just get a glimpse of this suspected officer in the hope that he will be led to court. However, no such thing happens.

It turns out that the same day the AP inspector identified as Paul Nyando was making his report to the police, another victim, a 65-year-old man who had also been robbed a week earlier of Sh400,000 at gunpoint moments after he withdrew the money also mentioned the same CID officer by name. 

The man said that he picked the name of the officer because while driving the escape car, one of the gangsters had called him by name when he almost hit another car around Kondele area as they were speeding off.

The name of the man driving the car used during the robbery matched that of the CID officer who was identified on a separate incident by the AP Chief inspector based in Lodwar who lost Sh250,000 in cash.

The robbers  took away his ATM and other documents and after abandoning him near Ukweli area, went to Lwanda town where they made a withdrawal from the same account using his ATM card.

Even after being mentioned more than once by the victims of the robberies, and even with the statements recorded, the CID officer suspected in the twin incidents remains a free man.

It was rumoured a few days after official complaints were lodged with the police following the incident  that he had been arrested and held in the cells. However this could not be confirmed by the senior police officers in Kisumu county who appeared to avoid commenting on the matter.

The AP’s lawyer Aggrey Mwamu is reported to have written a letter to IG David Kimaiyo to help push for the arrest of the officer who is still roaming the streets of Kisumu executing his police duties unperturbed.

When the media caught up with the Nyanza regional police chief to have him clarify the matter, the officer said investigations have  begun. He even went on to assure the public that no stone will be left unturned and that the victims will get justice.

But the members of the public are now a worried lot. They fear that the police are hellbent in shielding one of their own from facing prosecution.

The killing of two people in Kisumu’s sprawling Manyatta slums in the wake of the robbery incidents left the residents even more puzzled.

Police claimed the two, one of whom was an administration police officer working in Koibatek were suspected criminals. They said the two slain men had robbed a businessman at the Tuff Foam Mattresses in Kisumu and were trailed by the detectives who caught up with them at their hideout in Manyatta. This version has been dismissed by the family members.  According to them, the two were in the house on that fateful day when the police stormed in.

A member of the family said she was in the house with the deceased persons together with AP’s child when the detectives came in. They ordered the wife of the AP officer and their child to get out.

The man, a brother-in-law of the slain AP were then shot while sitting in the living room in cold blood.  IPOA has visited the family to investigate the killings.

The killings caused bad blood between the APs and their counterparts from the regular with the outgoing Kisumu AP commander Gradus Atinda publicly accusing his colleagues of being trigger happy in a press conference he convened a day after the shootings in his office.

He claimed the AP and his relative were killed although they were not armed.  “This is wrong, they should have been arrested instead if the police felt they had anything linking the two to any crime,” he added. Although the entire police top brass in Kisumu has been transferred, residents feel the move will not help stop some bad elements within the force from taking part in crime.

The area OCPD Musa Kongoli, DCIO Ndombi, county commander regular police Ngetich, county CID commander Cheruiyot, Kisumu East AP commander Elisha Cherono, Central Police Station OCS and AP county commander Atinda were all transferred.

But the locals believe criminals collude with junior police officers most of whom have been in the area for over 10 years. They say they even work with criminals  masquerading as informers and unlicensed private investigators who dine and merry with the police even driving their cars. It is the juniors who have overstayed who have the networks.