Officer sneaked into Ruto talks days before he killed colleagues

The bullet-riddled walls of the Kapenguria Police Station in West Pokot County on July 15, 2016. A police officer at the station killed six of his colleagues before the Recce Squad from Nairobi shot him dead. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • On July 2, Constable Abdihakim Maslah had travelled from the Kapenguria Police Station to Chepareria in West Pokot, where Mr Ruto was addressing a gathering, while holding a rifle, according to an official police report.
  • On July 14, Maslah killed six of his colleagues, including the station's commandert, Chief Inspector Vitalis Ochido, and a Recce Squad officer, before he was finally gunned down.
  • A few months to the police station attack, his colleagues noticed that his hands were rough and cracked, suggesting that he had taken some strenuous training, says the report.

The police constable who killed his colleagues in Kapenguria had sneaked into a meeting attended by Deputy President William Ruto while armed, just 12 days before the deadly assault.

On July 2, Constable Abdihakim Maslah had travelled from the Kapenguria Police Station to Chepareria in West Pokot, where Mr Ruto was addressing a gathering, while holding a rifle, according to an official police report.

But the document, titled Court of Inquiry Report into Causes of Shooting by Police Targeting Their Colleagues, does not provide details of the action taken against the officer after he was spotted at Mr Ruto’s meeting.

On July 14, Maslah killed six of his colleagues, including the station's commandert, Chief Inspector Vitalis Ochido, and a Recce Squad officer, before he was finally gunned down.

The report says Maslah had expressed his intentions to resign from the police force but when he was told to attach some documents to his resignation letter, he threw it back at the secretary and walked away and never presented it again.

It says senior officers at the station ought to have investigated why the constable was keen on leaving the force.

West Pokot County Police commander Mathew Kuto is quoted saying they had assumed that the officer had changed his mind about resigning.

According to the findings, Maslah did not maintain a close relationship with any of his fellow Muslim colleagues at the station.

He was only friendly to an Administration Police officer in the area and who was later questioned by National Intelligence Service officers regarding their relationship.

A few months to the police station attack, his colleagues noticed that his hands were rough and cracked, suggesting that he had taken some strenuous training, says the report, which adds that Maslah was very vigilant and would speak on his mobile phone only in Arabic.

EXPENSIVE LIFESTYLE

The constable, who the report says lived an expensive lifestyle, had few friends, was hostile to his colleagues and did not want to wear the police badge.

“He did not respect the Kenyan flag and never used to salute his seniors. He always put on the jungle hat and not the police beret with a police badge,” said one of the senior officers interviewed by the investigators.

The county intelligence coordinator in West Pokot County said he believed the killer officer was not a genuine policeman. He said the constable was at one time away from the station for three months last year and yet the station records showed he was on duty.

He came back to the station with a Somali woman, who was older than him, but she left soon after when she sensed no one wanted her around the station, says the report.

The attacker had a tactical advantage over his colleagues at the station because he would always sit at the entrance to the report office.

There were no emergency entry or exit points, as the only alternative door had been closed permanently, giving the attacker an opportunity to shoot at officers freely.

The report says the constable always carried his firearm to his house after work hours, which was illegal, but for which he was never punished or cautioned because of the weak control of weapons at the station. It was the same firearm he used to kill his colleagues.

The location of the armoury, near the report office, also made it impossible for unarmed officers to get weapons to repulse the attacker.

Mr Kuto said that even after reinforcements came from the Anti-Stock Theft Unit and General Service Unit camps nearby, officers could not access the report office because the attacker kept firing using AK-47 and G3 rifles, giving the impression that he was not alone.