By BONIFACE ONGERI
John, a police constable based in North Eastern Province, was aware that his boss at his former station had something against him.
"He was buying time looking for an opportunity so that he could take action," he says. "The opportunity presented itself the day I reported to work ten minutes late."
The officer, who asks to be identified only as John for fear of victimisation, says his boss gave him a tongue lash. Barely a week later, a transfer letter to North Eastern Province came.
"‘You are hereby asked to report to your new station in Dadaab, Garissa District in two weeks," the letter read in part.
"As much as I expected a transfer and was ready to serve anywhere in the country, my transfer here was in bad faith," he says.
John is only one of the hundreds of police officers posted to this harsh and now volatile region who complain that they are posted to this area as a punishment.
Privately, the officers working in North Eastern region often complain that their seniors don’t fully understand the consequences of being posted to this part of Kenya in bad faith.
And quietly, they have been on a go-slow sabotaging the Government security operations.
The region has since last October when the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldiers crossed over to Somalia in hot pursuit of Al Shabaab been a soft target for the terror group operatives.
The ease with which the terrorists blow up targets in the region is a testimony to this silent protest by the security officers.
"Most of the civil servants we receive in this region have been rejected from their previous stations. It is like the region is a dumpsite for all perceived bad elements. They can’t work under such environment and if they do, they work begrudgingly," former Diif ward Councillor Dagane Siyat says.
Security lapses
Police officers in the region who spoke to The Underworld revealed that most of the security lapses in the region can be traced to these frustrations.
"It is a fact known by our bosses that crime thrives well where officers are demoralised or worked for long," an officer confided.
"An officer posted in bad faith here to maintain security won’t care much," the officer said. "The media would report that there is laxity among security agents, but in the real sense they are demoralised," he said.
During a tour of North Eastern Province in 2007 by former Commissioner of Police Major General Hussein Ali, Wajir police demanded that the force be run with a human face.
The officers also demanded that promotions be based on merit. The visit, the officers said, was the first ever by a Commissioner of Police. They say Mathew Iteere is yet to visit them.
"We need motivation and such a visit goes a long way to motivate us that our boss is seeing the conditions on the ground. We hope you will address our grievances and improve our working conditions," an officer told the then commissioner of police.
To the police officers, this has been a region equated with punishment, like Siberia of the former Soviet Union.
"Some of the officers have been in the region for more than seven years. I know of an officer who has been in Mandera for more than seven years," Mr John Onyieku, who retired from the police force in 2010 says.
He says despite their long service, they are never promoted.
Standing orders
The police standing order that limits an officer to serve in one station for not more than three years has been ignored, he says.
"Long term deployment to this region strains relationships and families. They also fuel the spread of HIV and Aids," he says.
Nominated MP Mohammed Affey says the conditions and circumstances under which the police officers work ensures they lack the zeal to perform. "That is partly why you will see lapses in security and the residents pay dearly for it," Affey says.
"Some of the officers have told me their partners could not stand their lengthy stay away from home and they walked away. Disillusionment and hopelessness is written on their faces," he notes.
"Sometimes it is unfair to blame those on the ground. The blame should be on their bosses in Nairobi barking orders over radio calls and sending signals without any idea how the ground looks like," he says. "Let Iteere motivate his officers. We hope the Salaries and Remuneration Commission will really consider officers working in this end," he says.
It is not only junior officers who are victims. Even some of the senior civil servants who are expected to oversee the security operations face the same predicaments. Some District Commissioners, Officer Commanding Police Divisions (OCPDs) and Officers Commanding Station (OCS) have similar tales of punishment postings.
Former Wajir DC Wilson Wanyanga said there was a time when being posted to the region felt like being handed a death sentence.
"Some officers opted to resign from work than report to their new stations. But if one’s mind is on the ground, Wajir is the best place to work," he said.
Matters in this region are worsened by indecent housing and lack of good remuneration. Majority of the officers don’t live with their families because of poor houses.
Despite the harsh living conditions, terrain and weather, the officers are expected to protect residents from rag tug militias from Somalia and Ethiopia who carry out daring attacks.
Worse still, they are rarely paid risk allowances.
"Tackling elements like Al Shabaab in the jungle cannot be compared with a confrontation with petty criminals in towns. We have an extra duty of handling external aggression besides the internal criminals, but whenever we raise this issue we are told this is a duty," says a police officer in the region.
"The discrepancies in transfers only fuel discontent. In an effort to trigger individual transfers, we allow crimes to happen so that the community can cry for us to be moved for laxity," says another officer.
"Some police officers engage in illegal deals with gun runners. The illegal firearms that find their way to Nairobi have links with officers who have stayed here for long and know loopholes. They work in cahoots with the gun runners," says the officer.
