'Kenya does not have a goons crisis,' Murkomen says as police deny links to criminal gangs

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has stated that Kenya does not have a goons crisis, dismissing claims that the country is facing a growing menace of political gangs.

Murkomen spoke as the National Police Service (NPS) absolved its officers of any involvement in the disruption of opposition meetings and denied protecting goons and criminal gangs accused of causing chaos at political events.

Deputy Inspector General of Police Eliud Lagat, who was in Nyeri on Friday to assess preparations for next week’s pass-out parade of more than 6,000 officers at the Kiganjo Police Training College, said no evidence had been presented linking police officers to the disruptions.

Lagat also said the deployment of thousands of newly trained officers would strengthen the country’s ability to deal with emerging security threats.

Following months of condemnation from opposition leaders, who have accused the NPS of facilitating goons and criminal gangs during their political meetings, the police leadership has now defended its record.

“There is no complicity by security officers. We are there to enforce the laws that are provided for, and I don't believe the police are partisan to this. What we know is that it is possible to deal with this," Lagat stated. 

He added that there was no evidence incriminating officers within the NPS, adding that the injection of about 10,000 new officers graduating from various institutions this month would help address security challenges.

“You will see how we are going to deploy them to help reduce the security challenges we have had before. I am aware that we have had challenges of goons and criminal gangs, and we have put in place strategies that will manage this kind of nonsense, this kind of uncalled-for insecurity as a result of goons,” Lagat noted. 

Speaking in Naiberi, Uasin Gishu County, Murkomen dismissed claims that the presence of goons constituted a national crisis, accusing politicians of exaggerating the issue.

“Those who are trying to say that this country is in a crisis because of goons are liars. The crisis in this country is the bankruptcy of ideas by politicians who are unable to campaign, and they go and send goons to fight themselves and then want to make it a national crisis. There is no national crisis. Kenya is safe,” Murkomen stated.

However, the National Assembly Committee on Administration and Internal Security, which accompanied Lagat to Kiganjo, acknowledged the existence of criminal gangs and goons, saying political leaders were largely responsible for financing and mobilising them.

“What you are seeing in the country, these gangs and criminal groupings, almost entirely, if not all, are being sponsored by politicians, the men in ties, men in big offices," the Committee chairman Gabriel Tongoyo, stated. 

“This is not an issue of the National Police Service alone. It is an issue for everybody: the political class, the religious class, the students and the youth. We all have to work with the police and stop these criminal gangs,” he added.

The committee expressed confidence that the new generation of officers was adequately equipped to tackle emerging forms of crime and help maintain security ahead of next year’s General Election.