Mombasa County Commissioner set tough conditions for anyone who wants to buy a panga in the county.
Evans Achoki, while addressing the public during the Madaraka day celebrations, directed all retail outlets to note down details of those buying machetes in a bid to curb crime.
He announced that all traders in the region that deal with pangas were supposed to collect details of the national identity cards and telephone numbers of the buyers.
The traders were also required to provide the buyers with receipts for easy government monitoring.
“Mombasa has no forests and we wonder why people are buying so many pangas. The county security committee has therefore asked all traders to record details of those buying the pangas to monitor how they use them,” Achoki noted.
Achoki was responding to complaints from the area residents of a gang that had been terrorising them with machetes.
In the same breath, landlords in the area were instructed to collect all details of their tenants in a bid to curb drug trafficking in the region.
“We are concerned that drug traffickers operate in houses but landlords do not give information to the police. We now want them to register tenants including keeping numbers of their national identity cards,” he added.
Likoni MP Mishi Mboko asked the government to address insecurity in parts of Mombasa where youths are attacking people, particularly at night.
In the recent past, the cost has been experiencing a resurgence of the outlawed criminal gangs which has been a matter of concern to the authorities.
