The Ministry of Interior has come under heavy criticism following the arrest of three senators on Monday, August 17, 2020.
Senators accused Interior CS Fred Matiang'i and IG Hillary Mutyambai of using police officers to frustrate politicians and the Senate Security Committee that summoned them on Wednesday, August 19.
Junior police officers have come out to share their experiences in being used to execute orders for political reasons.
Back in 2007, a group of officers claim they were instructed by a very senior colleague to travel for a special assignment in Kisumu. The officers say they surrendered their job cards together with their uniforms before boarding a bus to Kisumu.
They were to perform what they describe as 'political jobs', however, their mission was leaked and the officers were ambushed on the way by members of the public.
Many of them were killed and lucky ones escaped with serious injures. When they went back, the same senior officer who sent them rejected them.
He went ahead to say he did not know them and that they were not employees of the service they claimed to be working for and lost their jobs.
Nahashon* (not his real name) recalled the experience, saying that he watched his friends die during the ordeal.
Brian* added that he refused to go on that mission and his employment was terminated.
"I was among them, when the bus stopped at Narok for officers to go for a short call. My brother called me to say that I should not go there. I alighted and told them am unwell, I was left there (Narok) with my Ksh 21,000 which I was given as night-out allowance.
"The following day I called my friend who went there and he told me a number of officers were killed and female officers dragged to the nearby sugarcane plantation and defiled but he was lucky that he rolled to the nearby police station having been stoned several times. To date, the guy is permanently disabled," he intimated.
Other officers who were terminated joined private security services.
According to a former Presidential Escort officer who spoke to Kenyans.co.ke, it is very hard for juniors to defy orders from their seniors without risking their careers.
"All orders must be followed in the National Police Service unless it is a very sensitive order such as those that involve life and death decisions.
"In those very sensitive circumstances, then an officer can ask for clarifiction from another senior-ranking boss, but for arrests, the orders must be followed," the former GSU officer explained.
