By ELISHA OTIENO elisha_otieno@yahoo.com
Posted Tuesday, August 23 2011 at 22:00
Posted Tuesday, August 23 2011 at 22:00
IN SUMMARY
- Residents hurried home as rumour spread officers were on a crackdown against gangsters
Residents rushed home and traders hurriedly closed shops in Migori Town when a team of Rural Border Patrol Unit officers was mistaken for General Service Unit personnel.
The residents panicked after rumours swept through the town that GSU officers had launched a crackdown on armed gangs that have been terrorising them for some time.
Boda boda operators sped off to their homes in the Monday night incident, with one saying: “It is safer to be indoors at such a time as the GSU is usually brutal in its operations.”
It later emerged that the lorry-load of RBPU officers was headed to Muhuru beach as a back-up team for officers recently despatched to guard the disputed Migingo Island in Lake Victoria.
The border patrol team comprised divers and radio communication experts.
Meanwhile, Nyanza deputy PC Erastus Ekidor has urged Kenyan fishermen and security forces on the island to co-exist peacefully.
He said the Kenyan police will stay on the island until an ownership dispute with neighbouring Uganda was resolved.
The Kenyan officers can be seen mingling freely with their Ugandan counterparts in the bars in the evenings before going to their camp on the neighbouring Ugingo Island to sleep.
Kenyan traders and fishermen have been taunting the Ugandan marine police officers since their arrival.
Drunken fishermen
“We want respect from the Kenyans...some drunken fishermen come to our camp to tell us how Kenya has more sophisticated military hardware than us. This is not good because we are not at war,” said a Ugandan officer who asked not to be named as he is not allowed to speak to the media.
The decision to send the Kenyan officers to the island was part of a joint ministerial committee resolution.
The team agreed to complete a stalled survey of the fish-rich island to establish its boundaries.
Posts
The border patrol team comprised divers and radio communication experts.
ReplyDeleteThe residents panicked after rumours swept through the town that GSU officers had launched a crackdown on armed gangs that have been terrorising them for some time.
ReplyDelete