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Junior officers ordered to surrender small arms
- Details
- Published on Monday, 25 February 2008 22:50
Local Provincial Police Officer (PPO), Mr. Anthony Kibuchi, confirmed that he had issued the order that pistols issued to junior officers be returned to respective armories adding that even under cover officers would be given assault rifles and not pistols.
The junior officers criticized the move by their seniors to disarm them claiming there was tension and suspicion among law enforcers from certain communities in the wake of post election violence. Kibuchi denied the claims saying the new directive was meant to strengthen police operations as most thugs and militiamen were armed with more sophisticated weapons.
"The junior officers will no longer be carrying pistols but instead will be issued with AK 47 and G3 assault riffles. We have acquired new sophisticated arms to deal with crime," Kibuchi said in a telephone interview with the Kenya News Agency.
Meanwhile some officers manning the volatile Borabu-Sotik border expressed concern over their lives claiming some officers who may have taken sides in the clashes may misuse their guns to harm them.
Cases of rogue police officers mishandling their guns at social places have been on the increase in the region. In one such incident last year, a policeman shot dead his senior and a schoolboy before killing himself. He also injured another colleague in Masaba district.
The incident occurred barely a week after another officer attached to Ogembo police station in Gucha district shot dead his boss after word went round that he would be demoted for malpractice.
