Raila leaves Ruto with a message as he flies out to India, other countries
Azimio party leader Raila Odinga.
In a statement announcing he will be out the country, Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition leader Raila Odinga on Sunday night called out President William Ruto over his unending expression of disappointments.
The President and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua have been lashing out at Mr Odinga saying he is to blame over ‘the sorry state of the country.’
“Can President William Ruto and Kenya Kwanza stop it with the lamentations?” posed Mr Odinga.
The two Kenya Kwanza government supremos have been accusing Mr Odinga of abandoning his oversight role as leader of opposition during the Jubilee government's reign and allowing the administration loot public.
Telling his followers he was leaving the country in a tour to several nations across the globe, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party boss said the first country he will be visiting was India.
“Baba has left the country for a week’s visit to several nations starting with India; see you all when I am back,” Mr Odnga’s statement reads in part.
Missing Indians
Mr Odinga’s visit to India comes after two of their citizens were abducted and went missing in Kenya.
The two Indian nationals, Mr Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan and Mr Zaid Sami Kidwai, have been missing in Kenya since July.
Indian authorities through Mr Arindam Bagchi who is the spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs in India, said that they were ‘keeping a close watch.’
In a statement last week issued by Mr Khan’s friends, the Indian national was visiting the country as a tourist when he suddenly went silent.
He was scheduled to return to his home country on July 24, 2022, but to date he has never been seen or heard from.
It is worth noting that Mr Khan was a journalist who in the past worked with several media outlets.
“As far as we understand, there were two Indian nationals, Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan and Zaid Sami Kidwai. They’ve been missing in Kenya since July 23. A police complaint was filed there soon after that. Subsequently a habeas corpus petition was filed in the Kenyan court. We understand that the issue is in the High Court of Kenya, a number of hearings have taken place. This week, there was a hearing,” Mr Bagchi told the press over the weekend.
SSU disbanded
However, on Sunday, October 16, President Dr Ruto said that he issued orders demanding that a crack police unit known as Special Service Unit (SSU) be disbanded.
The Head of State said that he made the decision after an investigation report on the disappearance of two Indian nationals and their taxi driver who was Kenyan was presented to him last week.
“We have disbanded the unit which was behind a series of extra-judicial killings,” President Dr Ruto said.
On Sunday, a senior detective at the DCI Headquarters told Nation officers attached to the unit were disarmed and suspended.
“The officers have also been put under 24-hours surveillance, it remains unclear what the plans are but we shall know with time,” said the senior sleuth who spoke in confidence as they are not authorised to speak to the media.
During former Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss Mr George Kinoti’s reign, SSU was tasked with dealing with serious crimes in the country.
In December 2019, the DCI overhauled its Anti-Operations Unit in an aim that was meant to fight crime in the country.
The famous Flying Squad which was accused of extra Judicial Killings was disbanded and replaced by Sting Squad Headquarters (SSH) and the Special Crime Preventions Unit was scaled down and renamed the Special Service Unit (SSU).
While making the announcement, Mr Kinoti said members of the newly formed units will be directly linked to the Crime Research Intelligence Bureau (CRIB) for intelligence driven operations.
