• DCI and Administration Police officers almost shot at each over an impounded lorry
• The DCI officers were escorting a lorry said to have been ferrying ethanol to Nairobi
Image: MONICA MWANGI
Drama unfolded at a police roadblock in Kitengela town on Sunday night after two groups of officers clashed over a consignment of suspected contraband ethanol.
The brawl that lasted six hours nearly degenerated into a gunfight between the local AP officers and their counterparts from the elite covert police squad based in Parklands and which reports directly to DCI chief George Kinoti.
After his appointment, Kinoti formed the police unit and it reportedly only deals with matters assigned to them by the DCI boss.
It took the intervention of senior police officers from Nairobi and Kajiado to break the stalemate as the two police units traded accusations.
Two men believed to be the driver and a conductor of the lorry ferrying the ethanol to Nairobi are reported to have escaped as the two police units bickered and threatened each other with guns.
The DCI officers were escorting a lorry said to have been ferrying ethanol to Nairobi.
The three officers are said to have intercepted the lorry at the Namanga border on suspicion of carrying contraband ethanol.
On reaching Kitengela town, the lorry was flagged down by officers manning a roadblock. The uniformed officers demanded to know who the plainclothesmen in the lorry and in the civilian Subaru vehicle were.
The three men introduced themselves as DCI officers from Parklands. The roadblock officers demanded to know why the officers were escorting the lorry and why they had not obtained an OB report to show that they had nabbed the vehicle and its crew.
Police procedures require that officers conducting an operation outside their area of jurisdiction must inform local police of their presence.
In this regard, the Parklands DCI officers were required to inform the Kajiado county police command of their presence.
They are also required to record any arrests or detention in the police OB in the area where the crime was committed. It is at that point that the officers at the roadblock declined to release the vehicle until their seniors were informed.
The DCI officers also called in their bosses in Nairobi, among them DCI head of operations Samuel Nyabengi.
Flying squad deputy Chief Jackson Owino was among the senior police officers dispatched from Nairobi to Kitengela to intervene in the matter.
This is the second time that officers from the same DCI unit are involved in a public scuffle with officers from other police units.
In February, they clashed with Tigoni DCI officers over a lorry reported stolen from Nairobi and which was traced to Redhill area.
After the incident, Kinoti appointed former Nairobi DCI chief Ireri Kamwende to probe the matter, which also almost generated into a gunfight.
An inquiry into the incident cleared the officers from both stations.