Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti on Tuesday disbanded the dreaded flying Squad Unit.
"This marks the end of the Flying Squad Unit and no officer will present himself or herself to the public as such,” Kinoti said in a statement.
To replace the Flying Squad, Kinoti formed another squad called Sting Squad Headquarters (SSH) that will have a maximum of 50 specialised officers.
The 50 will undergo specialised courses within and outside the country prior after selection, he said.
SSH will deal with armed robberies, kidnappings, motor vehicle theft and sale and distribution of contraband and substandard goods.
In the changes, Special Crime Prevention Unit (SCPU) was scaled down to a smaller unit and renamed Special Service Unit (SSU) which will be based at the Nairobi Headquarters.
“Officers deployed in the unit have undergo intense training in and outside the country leading to upgrading of their competencies, enhanced skills and knowledge aimed at making the unit more effective and efficient while maximizing available resources,” he said.
The SSU and SSH will then be linked to Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau (CRIB), which handles intelligence operations.
“Both squads will be on standby 24/7 as needed in critical crime emergencies within the country,” Kinoti said.
Other units working under CRIB include Cybercrime, Ballistics, Scenes of Crime, Principal Crime Registrar, Crime Intelligence Unit, Homicide and DNA, Toxicological, Chemistry and Biology Lab Units.
Following the disbandment, applications for the new specialised units were advertised.
A report sent to all DCI bosses and all DCI officers reads: “The director DCI intends to recruit qualified and dedicated officers from the DCI to establish a quick response unit…it will will be populated with officers of high integrity with specialized skills to do surveillance to enable then react appropriately.”
“Interested officers who meet the following qualifications and are above average in shooting skills or poses special special trainings are required to submit their qualifications through their respective commanders,” the directive signed by Mwangi Wanderi on behalf of DCI George Kinoti, dated December 31, 2019, reads.
The candidates should be medically and ethically sound, emotionally and ethically sound, below 35 years, and have at least three years of service with clean record.
This is the second time that the Flying Squad Unit is being restructured in two years.
On February this year, Kinoti scaled down the unit and changed the command line.
During the changes, dozens of police officers service under the units were also transferred to other units after reports of that some officers were colluding with criminals to hire out their guns.
The unit, which has drawn criticism in the for executions, was created after increased carjacking and armed robberies in Nairobi in 1995.
To remain undercover, officers in the unit wear casual clothes, are allowed to remain unshaved and use vehicles with civilian or foreign registration numbers.
