Secure entire country

Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i on Wednesday read the riot act to public administrators and heads of security agencies over rampant insecurity in Nakuru County. Dr Matiang’i, who was accompanied by the top brass of the National Police Service at a public forum organised to address insecurity in the county, also put on notice criminal gangs and their political financiers.

He also announced a major shake-up in the police service in the wake of claims that vicious gangs terrorising the region have been working in cahoots with rogue elements in the security agencies.

The call came just days after three women were murdered in cold blood in Mawanga, Bahati Constituency, in a wave of crime that authorities suspect is linked to politics. A local gang dubbed Confirm is said to be behind the recent upsurge of murders, muggings and rape cases.

The mass transfer of police bosses is welcome, given that criminals find it easy to build networks with rogue elements in the security sector who have served in one area for inordinately long periods. Such corrupt elements tip the gangs on impending sting operations and other efforts to wipe out crime in an evil quid pro quo arrangement that creates entrenched cartels that are hard to dismantle.

The purge in Nakuru should be replicated in other parts of the country that have reported high incidence of insecurity, especially now when the country is headed for a general election. The security agencies must work with residents of all known crime hotspots to ensure Kenyans have a conducive environment to choose their leaders on August 9. Most importantly, the security agencies must come down very hard on attempts to push nefarious political schemes under the guise of ordinary crime. There is a need to see the bigger picture as crime anywhere in the country is crime everywhere.