Senior police officer: My bosses made me a scape-goat for Garissa University attack

A senior police officer has sued his employer, claiming his bosses sacrificed him following the 2013 Garissa University terror attack.

Former Garissa County criminal investigations officer Musa Yego said he was wrongly suspended two years ago on a charge of failing to respond adequately to intelligence on the Al Shabaab attack.

He described the action against him as a witch hunt in an application against the National Police Service Commission.

In the case filed Wednesday by lawyer Nelson Mutai, Mr Yego submitted that his immediate boss, the DCIO for Garissa, was not sent home for failing in his duty and that those who were under him also remained in the police service when he was kicked out.

The officer added that he was shocked when he asked to respond to why he should not be retired from the force for failing to act on intelligence information he had allegedly received on the attack.

Sacrificial lamb

“To my surprise, I came to learn that the blame had been heaped on me and that I had been interdicted through a letter dated April 21, 2015,” the court papers filed Wednesday read.

In the letter, the officer was accused of failing to act on information he had received on March 30, 2015, which showed that 30 Al Shabaab operatives had fled from Kuday, following a Kenya Defence Forces incursion in Somalia, and were headed towards Liboi, Kenya.

The interdiction letter read: “The operatives were planning to attack Garissa University and Garissa Teachers College. You were informed that the operatives were within the vicinity of the university about 30km away. You were directed to beef up security to avert the attack.”

But Yego said his boss, Deputy Inspector General Mohamed Amin, also knew about the attack but failed to send enough officers to prevent it.