Police officers’ killings blamed on inexperience

Police officers’ killings blamed on inexperience, poor communication

By Beauttah Omanga

Poor communication and lack of experience might have had a hand in the high number of deaths of police officers deployed to Samburu County for a security operation.

A reliable source told The Standard that majority of those who died in the ambush were ‘freshers’ in the force. “It’s shocking that majority of those who were killed were new in the force. Some have not even earned salaries,” said an officer on condition of anonymity.

Some were said to have been drawn from Kitale, Trans-Nzoia, Eldoret and Nakuru which produced almost 40 officers. Yesterday concerted efforts managed to retrieve and ferry to Maralal control base, 12 bodies. The previous day, sources said 11 bodies had been collected from various spots within the escarpment.

ill-equipped

“I am fearing that more bodies might be discovered since we are not sure where our missing colleagues are,” said the source.

He said the numbers of those killed might not have been as many if the officers had adequate communication gadgets.

“Our colleagues in that group were ill-equipped because they did not have strong communication gadgets. If they had, at least quicker intervention would have scared the raiders away,” he said.

Multiple sources at the Rift Valley Provincial Headquarters said that majority of the officers killed were barely two years into the force making them vulnerable to attacks as they lacked ‘war tactics’.

“It’s very unfortunate that majority of those sent for that operation were hardly experienced to operate in such situations. They had difficulties in communication immediately they were attacked because of the rough terrain,” said a senior officer at the provincial headquarters on condition of anonymity.

Efforts to get the actual numbers of the officers who took part in the operation were fruitless as the PC Osman Warfa and PPO John Mbijjiwe were in a security meeting over the massacre.

New colleagues

Calls to the PPO’s cell phone number were answered by an aid who said his boss was in a security meeting.

Sources said the provincial security team was preparing to visit the region with some having left early yesterday to rescue their colleagues.

The source told us that the officers who escaped the attack were now pleading to be withdrawn and new colleagues dispatched.

“We are scared to the core. Having seen colleagues die, is simply scary. We are requesting that those who didn’t witness the bodies of colleagues to take our places,” said an officer on the ground.

The about 40 APs left Nakuru town on November 2 to help recover stolen herds and disarm locals said to have sophisticated weapons.

Yesterday morning more officers drawn from the General Service Unit (GSU), Anti-Stock Theft Unit and APs were dispatched to the region where about 30 police officers, among them their seniors, were ambushed and killed as they pursued raiders.

By yesterday no recovery of the animals had been made.

“We were ambushed before we would make any recovery. We can’t tell where they are hiding since the terrain is really bad,” said a police officer on telephone.

Scary territory

At the Nakuru provincial headquarters officers discussed the tragedy in low tones and avoided any interviews with the media.

“We are scared that we might be in line for deployment to that scary territory. We don’t mind the military taking our place now in that operation as they did during the one at the coast,” said a feasibly shaken officer manning a Government office.