Three prison warders have been arrested for allegedly transporting foreigners from Garissa to Nairobi illegally.
Constable Abdlulahi Ali Hassan, Corporal Ibrahim Adow and Sergeant Simon Kyalo Mwendwa were seized at Mutwang’ombe in a multi-agency crackdown along the Mwingi -Garissa highway on Thursday.
Detectives said they were ferrying six juveniles and two adults, all of the Somali origin in a GK lorry. The vehicle also had other prison officers headed to Nairobi for the annual Prison Sports Competition.
None of the foreigners had identification documents and the wardens could not account for them, the Star learnt on Friday.
Some Sh18,000, suspected to have been transportation facilitation money, was recovered from the sergeant.
The arrest happened barely two weeks after Commissioner General of Prisons Wycliff Ogallo warned prison officers not to engage in criminal activities.
Ogallo, in a memo to regional prisons bosses dated December 31, 2019, directed them to instil discipline in those they were in charge of.
“It has been observed more lately that our staff are getting more and more engaged in unbecoming conduct and behaviour,” the commissioner noted.
“Besides the acts/commissions being criminal in nature, they are giving the service a bad image. This cannot be entertained any longer,” the prisons boss said.
Some prisons officers had prior to the memo been arrested for ferrying bhang, impersonating police officers, reckless shootings, conmanship and uttering false documents.
The crimes were committed in collusion with rogue police officers and criminals. The criminals in uniform use their paramilitary training to murder, rob, kidnap and extort the public. They have also been involved in gunrunning and drug trafficking.
“This is a clear manifestation of lack of proper supervision from the basic level of corporals to a higher level of duty officers, security officers and officers in charge,” Ogallo's memo said.
On December 27, 2019, police sergeant Morris Mugambi and a prison warden Stephen Kamau were arrested at Lerata on the Isiolo-Moyale highway with 20 kilogrammes of bhang in a government vehicle.
The prisons boss directed that all officers be supervised and monitored "in all manners appropriate" before, during and even after deployment. "This will help in curbing these unwanted and unwarranted vices."
