Six Kenya police officers suspended

By Cyrus Ombati

Six senior police officers have been suspended over allegations of being involved in smuggling of aliens into the country.

The officers, who include the North Eastern deputy PPO Philip Ndolo, were interdicted last Friday following investigations that had been commissioned by police headquarters.

The investigations were secretly launched following several complaints that authorities, especially in Garissa, were abetting the smuggling of Somalis to Nairobi.

The move comes after four Immigration officials, including a deputy director were interdicted over illegal immigrants.

Director of CID Francis Muhoro confirmed to The Standard that the officers are on interdiction as further investigations into the allegations continue.

Others included a former deputy Provincial Criminal Investigations Officer (PCIO) in the province who had been transferred to Nairobi, a former OCPD in Garissa, his DCIO and two other senior commanders.

They were handed their letters last Thursday and asked to hand over government equipment until they are cleared.

The move by the Commissioner of Police Mathew Iteere is the boldest in efforts to clean the police force that has for a long time been topping the list of corruption among other problems.

The investigations were launched to establish how several aliens find their way to Nairobi after passing through Garissa, where various agencies charged with fighting the problem are based.

This followed the July arrest of an assistant commissioner of police who was found attempting to smuggle three Somalis at the Garissa Bridge.

The police officer was stopped by the bridge policemen manning the barrier after one of the known people involved in smuggling aliens who had earlier tried to bribe them allow some aliens to cross was seen riding in the police car alongside the aliens.

The Assistant Commissioner appeared in court days later to answer to the charges.

Another official said the investigations will also cover the Coastal region where more aliens use to get into the country.

At least 50 aliens are arrested weekly at various police checkpoints far away from the border areas and later taken to court. It is against this background that investigations were launched to establish how the issue is committed.

Investigations have since established that most of the suspects travel to the city where they manage to get passports and later leave the country to other parts of the world.

Numerous foreigners, many of Somali origin, have been arrested in other countries while travelling on Kenyan passports. Cases have been reported in South Africa, Tanzania and recently in Zambia.