One of the Mombasa County police patrol cars. Now the County Commissioner Nelson Marwa has instructed county police commander Robert Kitur to carry out an inventory of how the 26 police patrol vehicles were being used. This follows allegations that the vehicles were being vandalised and used for illegal activities.

IN SUMMARY

• Mr Marwa has instructed county police commander Robert Kitur to carry out an inventory of how the 26 police patrol vehicles were being used.
• He claimed that security cameras and other gadgets installed on the vehicles had been tampered with.
• Recently LSK Mombasa branch chairman, Mr Eric Nyongesa, urged Police IG Mr David Kimaiyo, to stop county askaris from driving the police cars.
• The vehicles, which cost Sh2.6 million each, were mounted with cameras for security surveillance.

Police have been directed to investigate how new patrol vehicles given by the Mombasa County government were being used.

This follows allegations that the vehicles were being vandalised and used for illegal activities.

County Commissioner Nelson Marwa has instructed county police commander Robert Kitur to carry out an inventory of how the 26 police patrol vehicles were being used.

Mr Marwa claimed that security cameras and other gadgets installed on the vehicles had been tampered with to ensure that the cars could not be tracked as initially intended.

“Even the computer systems have been tampered with. You cannot trace these vehicles.

TERRORIST ATTACKS

“Where are they? And what are they doing out there? We used to complain that security had deteriorated due to lack of vehicles, what excuse can we give now?” Mr Marwa asked.

The administrator lamented that the vehicles donated a year ago by the Mombasa County government had not been put to the right use of helping in reducing insecurity in a county that has been the target of terrorist attacks in recent months.

“You will find the vehicles parked in suspicious areas, the driver opens the door and sits as if shooting a Hollywood movie. Sometimes they are parked strategically as if waiting for something,” he said.

Recently, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) Mombasa branch chairman, Mr Eric Nyongesa, urged the Inspector-General of Police, Mr David Kimaiyo, to stop county askaris from driving the police cars.

“It was an ill-advised move that needs to be looked into critically. It has reached a point where the county askaris are trying to enforce certain police regulations,” Mr Nyongesa told reporters.

“They (police) have gone to bed with the county askaris making it difficult to differentiate between them to the detriment of the security situation in the county,” Mr Nyongesa said.

STOP COUNTY ASKARIS

He said that involving county askaris in police work posed serious threats to the work of the law enforcement agency.

“Police have no clue of who these county askaris are; they can easily leak out some of their secrets to third parties. It is extremely dangerous and as LSK, we feel this needs to be stopped immediately,” Mr Nyongesa said.

He called on the police to bolster their intelligence-gathering systems to deal with terrorism.

Sometimes 2013, Mr Kimaiyo and Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho signed a memorandum of understanding on how the vehicles would be managed and serviced by the police department and how they would be used to enhance security in the county.

Mr Kimaiyo said he would ensure security was beefed up in the port city to enable the governor’s vision of a 24-hour economy to be achieved and business conducted in a safe and secure environment.

SECURITY CAMERAS

The vehicles, which cost Sh2.6 million each, were mounted with cameras for security surveillance.

There was also a surveillance control room after it was agreed that the county government would monitor the use of the vehicles.

Mombasa was the first county to buy the state-of-art security vehicles fitted with tracking systems and other communication gadgets.

 - Source: http://www.nation.co.ke/