Commission to probe Baragoi killings

The National Police Service Commission (NPSC) will take action against any senior officer found to have acted negligently, leading to the deaths of about 40 officers in Baragoi, Samburu County over the weekend. Read (Death toll in Samburu attack now at 37)

NPSC Chairman Johnson Kavuludi on Tuesday said that the Commission had ordered for a thorough inquiry to be conducted in a view of taking action on officers found to have acted negligently in the course of exercising their responsibilities.

“The Commission intends to get to the root of what went wrong and will be seeking an explanation of the same because we consider this too serious a matter,” said Kavuludi.

He added that such killings had not happened in the history of the country and said they would not like a repeat of a similar case.

Mr Kavuludi noted that the Commission was indeed horrified by the cruel manner in which the country lost 42 gallant officers who had been deployed to carry out the noble task of protecting property in the area where they lost their lives against cattle rustlers.

Mr Kiraithe however on Monday defended the commanders, saying that he acted in good faith, though things later turned sour.

“I would not be in a hurry to condemn him. Police reforms is a huge package that calls for even provision of adequate equipment,” he said.

Mr Kavuludi said that while the Commission saluted the fallen officers for their courage in executing their responsibilities, it deeply regretted that they had to lose their lives in such circumstances.

“We take note that a majority of the fallen officers were indeed youthful and had just started working for the police service,” he said.

Senior officers assigning junior staff duties are expected to ensure that they are properly armed, depending with the area of work and the anticipated threat.

Police stations also be should prepared for snap or immediate ambushes.

He pointed out that the police service was ill equipped, adding that the attack was a wakeup call to them.

“The commission will develop training programmes targeting specialised units with skills that are requisite for such operations. We will also ensure that officers are not sent in a manner that exposes them,” said Kavuludi.

On Monday, Police Spokesman Eric Kiraithe said that such deaths could have been minimised if the officers had adequate equipments but said that additional officers had been sent to the area.

He also said that all the police aircrafts were only suited for transport and not operations.

“The commander used lorries to transport the officers to the area of deployment and this alerted the attackers,” said Kiraithe.

About 107 officers under the command of officers in charge of operations in Rift Valley Province Willy Lugusa (ACP) and the Samburu North OCPD Christinus Makhanu left on Saturday at around 8am to recover stolen cattle when they were attacked by the heavily armed bandits from Turkana County.

Other senior officers in the operation Superintendent Benson Makori, Superintendent Ibrahim Muchuma, Chief Inspector Daniel Mulyungi, Baragoi OCS Norbert Owino and three other inspectors.

Already, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) has launched independent investigations into the unfortunate killings.

The authority will, amongst other things, interview injured police officers to establish what transpired and provide recommendations.

The public will be informed of the outcome of the investigations.

IPOA was established in June this year to provide civilian oversight to the work of police including monitoring police operations in line with Section 6 (c) (k) (m) of IPOA Act 2011.

The law mandates the Authority to monitor and investigate policing operations affecting members of the public, receiving and investigating complaints by police officers and members of the public.