Kiambu Disown Rogue County Askaris, Officers Brutally Robbing And Manhandling Residents/Investors.

Kiambu County Government has disowned rogue county askaris and officers who have been accused of brutally manhandling and robbing residents while arresting them for any bleach of county by-laws.

Responding to the press when confronted following numerous complaints by the residents, Kiambu Chief Officer for Public Service & Administration Mr. Dominic Gacheru Kanyi said that their government will not condoned irresponsible acts by any of his officers.

“If anyone has been a victim of these allegations, please report formerly through a letter of complaint to my office and I can assure you that disciplinary action will be taken against any officer found culpable. We cannot have any officer tarnish the name of our county out of greed or irresponsibility,” said Gicheru.

Gicheru called on the residents to follow the laid down procedures before embarking on any business activities within the county to avoid giving corrupt officers some leeway to harass them or demand for bribes. He advised all those intending to put up structures in the county to first seek building plans approvals from the relevant town planner to avoid attracting arrest and eventual penalty from the county.

“Before you embark on any construction works, you must obtain all the relevant legal documents. Otherwise, if we get anyone bleaching this, we will actually issue you with a notice to acquire the approval and take you to court. All approvals can be obtained from the chief planning officer in the county and sub-county headquarters,” he added.

Otherwise, he said that no county askari or officer was permitted to demolish any structure or confiscate construction materials without first presenting a court order for the same.

There has been endless reports of people being attacked and robbed by the county askaris in the process of arresting them. This problem is very rampant in Thika Town and adjacent towns of Ruiru and Juja where officers using county government vehicles and at times being escorted by regular policemen, act with impunity leaving a trail of injuries on victims who don’t bribe them.

Once they arrest their victims, they immediately start battering them with clubs and at times threaten them with knives as they repeatedly kick them with their boots.

“These (county) Land Rovers have now been transformed into kangaroo courts where a guilty verdict is readily passed for all victims. After an arrest, they first attack you with kicks and blows which they call ‘kupewa dawa’ and in the melee, rob you of your money and personal valuables,” said one of the latest victims who lost Ksh. 64,800 last week when he was arrested in Landless Estate for allegedly putting up a structure without an approved building plan from the town planner.

This victim argues that the askaris have gone a notch higher as they are now being accompanied by tobacco sniffing ‘militia’ in their raids. He alleges that the goons are usually on the loose, robbing, assaulting, stabbing and maiming the victims in the name of maintaining law and order.

He says that there seems to be a cartel involving the askaris and the town planning department who usually direct the askaris to buildings sites that have no plans.

“There seems to be a very big cartel behind this. The planning department deliberately toss you around in circles to deny you the approval. Using the details in your application forms, they later follow up to your site to check if you are actually erecting the proposed building. Once they ascertain that you are, they raid your site accompanied by goons and county askaris,” he added.

Another lot of the county askaris victims are the hawkers, bodaboda riders and the tuktuk drivers who have been bearing their wrath for quite a long time. Their businesses have been turned into cash-cows where the askaris go round collecting ‘lunch’ before later striking to nab the ‘defaulters’.

The parking attendants and their clamping enforcement counterparts too have formed their own cartel where they rush to clamp vehicles as their owners are heading to pay for parking at the county booths. This is done so fast that the victim will not have returned with the ticket by the time they clamp the wheels and invoice it.

The other of their evil schemes involves the parking attendants hiding from motorists or taking off their yellow coats as a camouflage, leaving their victims stranded of their whereabouts. As the victims go out to search for them, their vehicle is immediately clamped and invoiced.

Immediately they come back with the ticket to find their clamped cars, the ‘men in yellow’ re-appear and intimidate the victim into parting with ‘something small to appease the wakubwa’.