Leave changaa consumers and go for criminals, Raila to police

The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) leader Raila Odinga has called on the police to prioritise their operations to focus on key areas that will lead to improved security in the country.

Speaking at a rally in Malaba, Busia County on the fourth of his five-day tour of Western Kenya, Odinga said that the police service has become unprofessional and intimidates suspects and Kenyans and has misplaced its priorities.

“The last time I checked, consumption of chang’aa or busaa was not a crime in Kenya. Instead of launching a crackdown on people who are just out to enjoy themselves, police officers should go for criminals who have made the country insecure,” he said amid applause from the gathering.

He remarked that the apparent mistrust existing between the public and the police is as a result of high-handedness by police officers when dealing with the citizenry.

“The current operation guidelines of the police force were put in place by the colonialists and years after gaining independence, Kenyan has not moved to institute reforms.”

“In the United States, people who are lost ask the police for directions, but that is not the case in Kenya where the immediate question the office will ask you is if you have an ID and if you don’t, you are arrested.”

The CORD leader noted that he would ensure reforms are effected in the police force and turn it to a service if elected President next year.

His party, he said, would move to make the police service a coveted profession by giving officers better salaries and houses.

A report released by International Human Rights Watch on deaths and disappearances arising from the counter-terrorism operations in Kenya’s North Eastern and Nairobi regions stated that at least 34 people have allegedly disappeared in the hands of security forces and 11 bodies of people previously arrested by state agents found within the past two years.

The report stated that the disappearance in the hands of the Kenya Defence Forces, Anti-Terrorism Police and the Regular and Administration Police are on the rise particularly in the North Eastern where counterterrorism operations kicked off in 2013 after the Westgate and Garissa University College attacks.

The report has, however, been trashed by the police department, terming it a public relations gimmick aimed at soliciting funds from donors.

Police Spokesman, Charles Owino, on Thursday stated that the police department was the custodian of the law and has its own mechanism of carrying out investigations, through the  Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA), urging the Human Rights Watch to channel its grievances through such mechanisms.

Owino stated that it was wrong to make a general condemnation of the entire force saying this would worsen the already strained relationship between the public and police.