Alert as APs threaten protest – Kenya regular police said to have killed two senior administration police officers – There is jealousy between the two forces
Posted by African Press International on June 30, 2009
In Summary
- Officers bitter at the killing of two of their own by colleagues from regular force
Top security officials were on the look-out after junior Administration Police officers threatened to hold demonstrations in Mombasa on Monday.
There was relief at the coastal town after the APs turned up for work in the morning, and took over from those who had been on night shift without hitches, senior officers told the Nation.
Investigations
In Nairobi, police chiefs on Monday made frantic efforts to avert a full-blown confrontation between the junior officers in the two formations.
Internal Security minister George Saitoti ordered police commissioner Hussein Ali to carry out thorough investigations into the shooting, saying what his officers had explained was not very clear.
Coast provincial police boss Leo Nyongesa had on Saturday said that his officers acted on information that the APs were part of a gang of robbers and that they were killed in a shoot-out.
Witnesses interviewed by the Nation contradicted the police version, saying the officers who were killed had not challenged their counterparts when they were accosted.
On Monday, AP commandant Kinuthia Mbugua told the Nation: I trust that the truth will be brought out after investigations.
Even as the family of one of the AP officers killed alleged foul play, it emerged yesterday that he kept calling his brother, informing him that he feared for his life.
Relatives blamed the killings on senior regular police officers. They said the shooting victims were involved in the investigation of major drug trafficking at the Coast.
At the burial of senior inspectors Badi Said Mwajirani and Juma Yusuf Mwagaatu, Coast MPs called for thorough investigation into the case and warned against any cover-up.
We are not going to accept any investigation reports that are not open and revealing, those are specifically tailored to cover up the truth by a selected committee, said the Matuga MP Chirau Ali Mwakwere.
Shot dead
Mr Mwajirani and Mr Mwagaatu were shot dead on Moi Avenue in Mombasa on Saturday at around 9.30am. The police shot the APs after they allegedly drew firearms.
According to Mr Nyongesa, the APs, who were four, had stolen Sh6,000 and a mobile phone from two people and had planned to rob Toyota Kenya when the police officers caught up with them.
Two were gunned down and police recovered one firearm, a Ceska pistol, with 22 rounds of ammunition, said Mr Nyongesa, adding that the other two suspects escaped.
But this version has been disputed by eyewitnesses, human rights activists and families of the victims.
source.nation.ke
