Interior Cabinet Secretary, Fred Matiang'i, unveiled a heavily armed all-female police unit. The tactical women were deployed to man the streets of Nairobi on Thursday, September 5, as reported by The Standard.
The team will patrol the streets of Nairobi for five months, before being recalled to its base in Ngong.
The elite all-female Special Weapons and Tactics Team (SWAT) was unveiled in August 2019 in a ceremony presided by Matiang'i.
The squad is the first of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa and will be tasked with handling organised crime in Kenya.
The all-female unit comprises of 48 officers from the Administration Police Service, who underwent a thorough five-month physical and combat training in Ngong.
The team's drills included handling a variety of weapons and explosives as well as boxing, wrestling, judo and karate.
The unit can also scale multi-storey buildings to rescue hostages. That was the first phase of a 15-month training programme, the second phase being to patrol the streets, before going back to the training camp for the final five months.
Speaking while presiding over the ceremony in Ngong, Matiang'i conveyed that the officers were trained in thwarting terror threats and enhancing general security of the country.
Administration Police Service boss Noor Gabow, on Thursday, September 5, was buoyed when the team was deployed to prowl in Nairobi.
“They will enhance police visibility and sufficiently respond to distress calls from the public while supplementing any existing ground forces.
"We hope to deploy them to other places and train more. They are ready to serve anywhere. The new team can handle any situation a male officer with similar training can," he stated.
In the first phase of their training, the female squad covered the application of Israeli Krav Maga, multiple weapons handling techniques as well as explosives and IEDs management.
