Police officers saved from from eviction

Kirinyaga County Commissioner Jim Njoka (L), and other officers at PI Police Post in Mwea East Sub-County. [Kariuki Mwangi, Standard]

The Kirinyaga County Security and Intelligence Committee has moved swiftly to save six police officers deployed at P.I. police post in Mwea East from forcible eviction.

This is after the 10-year lease on plot where the six police officers have been residing for the last 10 years came to an end, and the owner of the plot started bringing in building materials to redevelop the plot.

The owner of the plot said that he entered into a lease agreement with members of the community who fundraised to pay for 10-year occupancy, so that the police could be deployed to deal with rising insecurity in the area at the time. 

County commissioner Jim Njoka led a high-level security team that brokered a deal between Mwea Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and a contractor that will see the officers move to the newly built premises.

"It is unfortunate that the police officers were on the verge of being forcefully evicted, despite there being a newly built police station financed under Mwea CDF," said Njoka.

The county commissioner said that there has been a stalemate between Mwea CDF and the contractor, who had refused to hand over keys to the new premises as he had not been paid a balance of Sh2.6 million since 2019.

However, after lengthy deliberations, the two agreed to settle the Sh2.6 million balance under the 2021/2022 financial year.

John Muraya, the P.I Community policing chair said that the deal has come as a sigh of relief to residents. 

"The local community came up with the idea of leasing the houses for the police officers 10 years ago due to the insecurity cases that had affected the area. 

"We felt that their redeployment would have negatively impacted on the effort that enabled the government to ensure security in the area," said Muraya.