Don’t vilify the police, improve their pay and welfare first

In the past two weeks, the police have been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Last week it was the killing of a human rights lawyer, taxi driver and boda boda rider (God rest their souls). We had not gotten over the shock of the gruesome and macabre murders when the smell of gunpowder filled Kapenguria police station when one relatively young police officer turned a gun on his colleagues. Before he was neutralized, he had killed seven of his workmates including his immediate boss.

During this month another officer turned his gun on his superior then on himself. In Lamu a very young officer killed his lover and himself in a case of love triangle. This same week also a female police officer was obstructed by members after she had abducted a woman she accused of sleeping with her man. Apparently she had threatened to kill her.