The increasing grave threat to the people by rogue police is the height of irony, as they are employed by a national agency whose key mandate is to protect lives and property. Detectives investigating the fatal shooting of a Nairobi doctor have traced and pieced together evidence that appears to link three police officers to this crime.
The one suspected to have pulled the trigger has been arrested, with the others on the run. This gangland-style execution is just one of the incidents in which the suspects are police officers.
Directorate of Criminal Investigations detectives have described this high-profile murder case as complex. Suspected rogue police officers are featuring high up in the incident, involving land disputes and family tensions.
Two spent cartridges and a bullet fragment retrieved from the victim’s body have proved useful. A ballistics examination has established that the bullets were fired from a police-issued pistol. Criminals in uniform are time and again breaching public trust by harming the very people they are supposed to protect.
Security concern
DCI chief Mohamed Amin has, citing “reliable intelligence”, rightly described the involvement of police officers in crime as a “grave betrayal of the uniform and public trust”.
Another two police officers are suspected to have been involved in the fatal shooting of a Nairobi lawyer last September.
In March, four officers were arrested in Nairobi over a robbery in which Sh4.2 million was snatched from a supermarket owner who had just left a bank.