Mombasa security chiefs trade barbs over crime, link vice to police bribery

**Mombasa County Commissioner Nelson Marwa [PHOTO/STANDARD]**

On March 12, a quarrel erupted between Mombasa county commissioner Nelson Marwa and Mombasa police commandant Robert Kitur over police conduct amidst rising insecurity.

Marwa invited Kitur’s wrath when he said: “Police stations in Mombasa have been turned into ATMs.”

The county commissioner argued that there was a link between police laxity and misconduct and the rising crime in Mombasa.

“People are reluctant to report suspects to police stations because they know the suspects will be roaming free barely an hour after they are arrested,” Marwa said in the statement that irked Kitur.

Kitur, in turn, accused the county commissioner of trying to demoralise police officers and interfering with police affairs.

“Let him tell us facts instead of peddling rumours. He should tell us who has taken the bribe and the one who gave it so that we take action,” said Kitur in a swift rebuttal of Marwa’s claims.

Marwa gave examples of police stations where high level corruption allegedly took place and accused officers of misconduct, partly because they were poorly led or supervised.

“If dangerous criminals are released after giving bribes, when will we ever get rid of insecurity in the county?” posed Marwa.

He listed Makupa Police Station as one of those notorious for releasing criminals after money changed hands.

However, Kitur responded that corruption within the force was always investigated and punished, and accused Marwa of waging propaganda on matters he had never raised in regular county security meetings.

After this altercation, two shootings that have been the subject of much debate occurred in Mombasa. Businessman James Njenga was fatally shot in the Majaoni area of Kisauni on Tuesday and Mohamed Ibrahim Khamisi, alias Babadi, a police sergeant, was killed in Kuze area of Mombasa’s Old Town on Wednesday.

The police refused to comment on Njenga’s killing by attackers on motorcycles, but have been more forthcoming about Mohamed’s death.

“We are yet to ascertain the motive behind Mohamed’s killing,” Mombasa criminal investigation officer Henry Ondiek said on Wednesday.

Intelligence officers suspect Mohamed was killed by members of an Al-Shabaab cell operating from Kisauni and Likoni. They say the killers were opposed to the deceased’s tracking of gangsters and Muslim radicals. Mohamed’s family is also active in community policing and has been accused by local criminals and terrorist cells of cooperating with the National Intelligence Service and anti-terrorist police. The abduction of Manase Mitungu Shiuka, a teacher, by four men in broad daylight on March 14, along Moi Avenue, has added to the concerns over security.

Some observers suggest that Mombasa police, and by extension the police force in the Coast region, have their priorities wrong or have chosen to abet crime, fuelling public resentment against law enforcers. Police have also been accused of focussing on petty crime such as prostitution and extorting money from motorists, while ignoring drug traffickers and smugglers.

Obede Muruli, the chairman of the Tuk Tuk Owners Association, expressed unease over insecurity in areas like Majengo and Old Town “which we have advised our members to boycott”. Muruli accused police officers of putting tuk tuk drivers’ lives at risk by using them to conduct night patrols.

Excessive force

“We have also received reports that some officers refuse to pay the drivers,” Obede says.

A major security shakeup in the Coast region occurred on October 1 when the then Inspector General of Police, David Kimaiyo, transferred the entire anti-narcotics police squad across the six counties. This was followed by the October 10 raid on the Nyali home of the Akasha brothers who are suspects in a high profile drug trafficking case.

Last year, a report by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority noted that the security committee knew of the massacre in Mkepetoni, Lamu several months in advance but did nothing, while a senior officer assisted in the procurement of guns used in the mass murder.

Already, three police officers in Kwale and Lamu are facing murder charges for using excessive force, leading to the deaths of a civilian and a child and then trying to cover up the crimes.

Mohamed Salim, a police officer, is charged in Malindi with causing the death of 22-year-old Margaret Njeri by hitting her with a gun on January 17 in Mpeketoni, Lamu. Mohamed allegedly hit her with the gun in the guise of enforcing the dawn to dusk curfew in force in that part of Lamu since last June’s killings.

In the Kwale case, two officers, Veronica Gitahi, the Mswambweni District Criminal Investigation Officer (DCIO), and Constable Issa Mzee, are charged with killing Kwekwe Mwandaza on August 21 last year and trying to conceal the killing. The official reason for storming the house in Msambweni where Kwekwe was killed was that armed men were looking for Salim Chaka Zani alias George, her uncle, who police claim was a wanted terrorist.

A week ago, Chaka testified for the prosecution, and said he had never been interrogated by police over the alleged criminal links and never went into hiding as alleged by the police.

“I have never been arrested and nobody told me I was wanted by the police; I am always available at my workplace,” said Chaka who said he left Kwekwe in his house with his children to visit relatives, and not to hide.

Two days later, mortuary attendant Mwenda Munyao told Justice Martin Muya that after the killing of the Class Six pupil, Veronica and her entourage tried to register the corpse as having been collected from the roadside.

“At first, they told me that the body had been collected from the roadside, but when I insisted that they disclose where it had come from, the DCIO told me that the girl died from bullet wounds sustained after being shot by police officers when she attacked them with a panga,” said Munyao.

Also testifying for the prosecution, Munyao said Gitahi changed her account when he told her that the mortuary at Kinango did not accept unidentified bodies and advised her to take the corpse to the Coast General Hospital in Mombasa.

Back in Mombasa, magistrates and judges are accused of not discouraging the police force’s focus on petty crimes.

A case in point is the December 31 arrest of a 16-year-old Class Seven girl at Mama Ngina Gardens for alleged loitering. She was prosecuted and faced a jail term if she could not pay the Sh50,000 fine.

Reports show that after she failed to go home, her family reported she was missing but this information was not acted on.

Her case only came to light when Mombasa Governor Hassan Ali Joho visited Shimo La Tewa Prison on March 10 and discovered that a pupil who was supposed to join Class Eight was in prison. She was freed after Joho paid her fine.

Joho said the police and magistrate should have sent the girl to a probation officer or for community work instead of jailing her.

Meanwhile on March 10, Tyson Mutisya and his wife Grace Njeri, charged with stealing Sh10.8 million from First Community Bank, appeared in the dock at the Mombasa law courts with their four children, including a suckling infant. “What are those children doing in the stand? Someone take them out before we can proceed with the case,” ordered Mombasa Chief Magistrate Stephen Riech.

Marwa believes some of the acts of misconduct by police are caused by incompetent superiors. He cites a case where he intervened to avert violence after regular police allegedly declined to stop a gang from tearing down a property against a court order.

“I was forced to send General Service Unit officers to prevent vandalism,” he says.

And Marwa alleged that “lack of proper supervision” of junior police officers has spurred indiscipline and allowed corruption to thrive.

“We have been arresting the police officers involved in bribery and involving the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission. We cannot protect police officers involved in corruption in this county,” said Kitur.

Kitur admits there are “a few officers who were going against the law without the knowledge of their seniors,” but says that is no justification for Marwa to question the competence of their seniors.

Stories by Joakim Bwana, Willis Oketch and Bernard Sanga.