Former top cop Charles Owino provides compelling analogy of how to commit murder

Charles Owino the of Head National Communication Centre. [File, Standard]

Charles Owino, the boisterous cop who served as the spokesperson for the National Police Service, returned to TV screens this week to provide useful insights about law and disorder in Homa Bay county.

I wasn't aware Owino now leads a new government outfit called the National Communication Centre, whose mandate and mission I have no idea about. But that's not my problem; Owino is a bright former cop, with a PhD to boot, even though I wasn't clear if he was on TV as the boss of this new outfit that does god-knows what, seeing that he no longer speaks for the national police service.

Anyhow, Owino provided what one might call a penetrating analysis of the anatomy of a killing. This is a paraphrase of his conversation on Citizen TV: "You know, Homa Bay is tricky, and the internal dynamics there are that some folks want the Interior Permanent Secretary, who comes from the area, fired, because they are afraid of the unknown.

"So they could instigate chaos in his backyard just to have him fired. You see, from my experience, if I plot your elimination and hire someone to do the job, then I have to also to plot the elimination of the hired killer because it'd be foolish to let them live because once arrested they will let rip.

"So, the most effective strategy, if I have the power to order a killing, is to order a second killing because dead men tell no tales, if you know what I mean. That's how power is exercised. So those folks who sent crooks to shoot down the Kasipul MP (Charles Ong'ondo Were) must have been very thick not to anticipate that the shooters, once arrested, would sing like birds and reveal who sent them."

From a policing point of view, I'm not clear where Owino's loyalties lay; the arrest of the suspected killers that would lead to a quicker resolution of the matter, or the culprits getting away with murder. But since I have never been a police officer or served as their spokesman, or be as bright as Owino, I suspect I'd qualify for those he considers "thick" for posing foolish such questions.