President William Ruto is today expected to meet top security commanders at a time the country’s security situation is on a downward spiral.
Organised armed and knife wilding gangs have turned Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) and its environs as a criminal paradise, a situation that is being replicated in other towns across the country.
Also, unsilenced guns of bandits have caused agony in the northern and north-rift regions of the country leaving a trail of death with both civilians and security officers being the major casualties.
Yesterday, during a full cabinet convened by President Ruto at State House, the cabinet sanctioned the deployment of a specialised force from the General Service Unit (GSU) and the Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU) to augment the police in dealing with the surging insecurity that has been witnessed in the capital.
This was the second cabinet meeting chaired by the President and attended by all Cabinet Secretaries.
In a sharp contradiction to cases being witnessed, the cabinet also noted the state of national security is sound, even though parts of the country had over the last week experienced a surge in crime particularly in Nairobi as characterized by increased muggings and robberies and in the north where perennial banditry and cattle rustling activities continue.
The president is expected to meet the security top commanders today for the first time amid concerns about rising crime activities and alleged silent go-slow by police.
However, yesterday, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki, after a closed-door meeting with Nairobi regional police commanders at Administration Police Training College meeting in Embakasi dismissed claims of go-slow by the police that is allegedly encouraging a resurgence in muggings, violent robberies and other gang activities, some officers revealed there is a bigger problem which has triggered the situation.
“The review includes everything about policing, their equipment, their salaries, their housing, their mortgages, and their health care…The whole idea is to adjust it to the cost of living, but also to make it at least as near at par as possible with the other coders who have equal standing within the public sector.” Kindiki noted.
He said the government was keen to promote an apolitical police force saying officers will not be coerced into taking political sides or performing extraneous duties outside their code of conduct.
President Ruto ordered the disbandment of the defunct Special Service Unit (SSU) formerly domiciled under the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and formed by the immediate former boss George Kinoti.
The president said the unit was linked to extrajudicial executions.
Police are said to have been angered by open disparage by politicians and blanket condemnation resorting to go-slow.
