•According to Ipoa the various grounds on which cops get reported to them include harassment, robbery with violence, destruction of property, grievous harm, refusal to refund cash bail and cases of killing.
•Entities like Missing Voices and International Medico-Lego Unit have routinely documented cases of extrajudicial killing, harassment and enforced disappearance by the police
Image: FILE
Concern over police involvement in crime continues to rise after two officers got arrested over the weekend for engaging in a robbery with violence.
Detectives in Tharaka South reported that they were holding sergeant John Lekidayo and Constable Kelvin Kinyua for allegedly blocking a lorry ferrying goods and diverting, citing police authority.
The incident happened last Thursday morning.
It was moving hardware goods worth Sh600,000 to Tharaka Nithi from Isiolo.
The two officers based at Nkubu police station are alleged to have blocked the lorry at Ura gate.
Armed with AK47 riffles, they had two more people who introduced themselves as police officers and claimed that the lorry was ferrying counterfeit products.
They got the driver and his two turnboys handcuffed before bundling them into a white Toyota fielder car that had been used to block the lorry.
According to DCI details shared on social media, the small car sped off towards Kacibine market in Imenti central, where the three were later dumped.
After reporting the incident at the Kiagu police post, investigations began immediately and it was established that the vehicle involved in the incident, belonged to sergeant Lekidayo.
Further investigations revealed that Lekidayo was in charge of the armoury on the day of the incident and had issued an AK-47 rifle to his accomplice Kinyua.
The two then proceeded for unspecified duties that were not booked at the station raising more suspicion on their whereabouts, during the time when the incident is reported to have occurred.
The lorry was later to be found abandoned empty.
In February alone, up to 10 police officers drawn from different units were arrested in one weekend over links to multiple crimes ranging from theft of government property, and bribery to robbery with violence.
For example, in Nairobi, an officer- Thomas Odira Musasa-drawn from the Critical Infrastructure Command Centre got apprehended alongside four others over that weekend for allegedly stealing 11 seamless pipes worth Sh275,000.
That very Saturday, a police corporal alongside his three constables colleagues serving at Buruburu police station got arrested for alleged harassment and demanding bribes from wines and spirits sellers in the local shopping centre.
Over the same period, a police constable attached to Butula Police Station got apprehended for dumping his station’s Occurrence book into a pit latrine to frustrate a criminal investigation against him.
Dennis Kinoti had been accused of slapping his female colleague the previous week. The book got retrieved and was preserved as an exhibit.
Another case involved four DCI officers serving at Lang’ata police station.
They were arrested over claims of committing robbery with violence.
The trend of crime by the men in blue has caught the attention of civil society players.
Entities like Missing Voices and International Medico-Lego Unit have routinely documented cases of extrajudicial killing, harassment and enforced disappearance by the police.
In fact, according to Ipoa, the various grounds on which cops get reported to them include harassment, robbery with violence, destruction of property, grievous harm, and refusal to refund cash bail among others.