DCI boss Kinoti disbands Flying Squad unit, forms new team

Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti has disbanded the dreaded Flying Squad police unit in a move aimed at ensuring effective and efficient prevention of crime in the country.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the DCI said the Flying Squad Unit will be replaced by the Sting Squad Headquarters (SSH) — a new unit that will be comprised of only 50 highly-trained officers who will be based in Nairobi.

“With effect from today, the Flying Squad Unit has been disbanded. This marks the end of the Flying Squad Unit and no officer will present himself or herself to the public as such,” said Kinoti.

He added: “To replace the Flying Squad and create an auxiliary support team on identified, researched and profiled crimes, another squad has been formed and named Sting Squad Headquarters (SSH) that will have a maximum of 50 specialized trained officers who will respond to specific cases.”

According to the DCI, officers who will be recruited to the Sting Squad Headquarters (SSH) unit will undertake specialised courses within and outside the country touching on their core areas of operation.

The SSH will be tasked with handling cases such as armed robberies, kidnappings, motor vehicle theft as well as sale and distribution of contraband and substandard goods.

At the same time, the Special Crime Prevention Unit (SCPU) has been renamed and scaled down to a smaller unit only based at the DCI headquarters in Nairobi.

The Special Crime Prevention Unit will henceforth be known as the Special Service Unit (SSU), with its members undergoing specialised training within and outside the country.

“Officers deployed in the Special Service Unit (SSU) have undergone intense training in and outside the country leading to upgrading of their competencies, enhanced skills and knowledge aimed at making the Unit more effective and efficient while maximising on the available resources,” added the DCI.

The DCI noted that the new  crime prevention units — Sting Squad Headquarters (SSH) and Special Service Unit (SSU) — will be linked directly to the Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau (CRIB) for intelligence driven operations alongside other augmenting units including; Cybercrime, Ballistics, Scenes of Crime, Principal Crime Registrar, Crime Intelligence Unit, Homicide, (DNA, Toxicological, Chemistry and Biology Lab Units), currently being installed in the Ultra-Modern Forensic Laboratory.

The units will work closely with other State Security Agencies for information and intelligence sharing, among others.

“Both squads will be on standby 24/7 as needed in critical crime emergencies within the country,” said the DCI.