Interior Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo /HANDOUT
From public lynching while protecting an innocent young girl from being forced to undergo female genital mutilation to being killed while supervising national exams, police officers have been to hell and back.
Up to 28 police officers and one prison officer have died in the line of duty in the just-ended financial year.
Interior Principal secretary Raymond Omollo says the year has seen increased public hostility against law enforcement officers who are just doing their job in maintaining law and order and ensuring everybody’s safety.
The officer who died while supervising the exams was attacked in November last as he manned the delivery of KCSE papers to Mahero Secondary School in Alego Usonga.
The officer, his colleague and the team administering the test had just alighted from the bus and were walking on foot to the school as the road was in a poor state when they were attacked.
Two people armed with crude weapons suddenly attacked them, hacking the officer to death and escaping with his weapon.
“You can just imagine the kind of toxic environment our hard working officers endure to protect the public. What wrong did this officer commit to suffer so much painful death?” Omollo said.
Then there’s the case of the officer from the Embobut police post.
They were working at the Embolot location, where they raided and rescued six girls who they later escorted to the Embobut police post in December last year.
According to police reports, angry youth raided the police post to free the girls after they were genitally mutilated, where they overpowered the officer who was on duty and stoned him to death before burning his body using a mattress.
The youths believed to have come from the nearby Maron Vocational Training Centre made away with a G3 rifle and 40 rounds of ammunition.
Omollo said other officers died in various circumstances but majority of the fatalities were in bandit-prone areas of North Rift.
“We continue to commiserate with the families of these officers who worked very hard to keep their country safe and serve the people,” he said.
The public hostility could be attributed to the political unrest that rocked the country this year and which saw police and the public engage in confrontation.
Up to 60 protesters died, with hundreds of injuries and arrests, according to various human rights organisations.
There have also been reports of enforced disappearances and alleged abductions, with some victims yet to be traced and reunited with their families.
The public, including civil society voices, have roundly condemned the police and other law enforcement agents for the vices, something believed to fuel public disaffection against them.
Scores of police officers were also injured during the protests, including one who lost all his hands after a teargas canister exploded.
Omollo said the state has rolled out insurance schemes to cater for all police officers and their families, giving them peace of mind as they serve, mostly in frontline areas.
“We know that mental health is a major issue for our officers. We not only give them mental debrief when they are back from frontline duty but also ensure that provisions like Taifa care and the insurance afford them all the care they need,” the PS said.
Omollo said the state had given the officers a 20 per cent salary rise targeting the lowest ranked officers.
