Prisons staff caught ferrying foreigners to Nairobi
Three Kenya Prison Service officers were on Thursday evening arrested while trafficking eight foreigners from Garissa to Nairobi in a government vehicle.
Sergeant Simon Kyalo, Corporal Ibrahim Abdow and Constable Ali Hassan are believed to have been paid Sh18,000 to ferry the six children and two adults in the Prison’s Service lorry which also had other officers scheduled to attend the annual Prison Cross Country Championships in Nairobi.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters said the officers were arrested at Mutwang’ombe along the Mwingi-Garissa highway.
All the six foreigners of Somali origin did not have any identification documents and the officers could not account for them.
The DCI boss George Kinoti said the foreigners were grilled but did not immediately say what action would be taken against them.
The officers are however expected to be charged in court Friday morning.
There has been increased cases of security officers involved in criminal and corrupt activities in the recent past. In the last one month, over 20 officers from different agencies have been arrested and most of the charged in court.
Last week, the Commissioner General of Prisons Wycliffe Ogallo revealed that more officers were getting involved in criminal activities, and he attributed this to lack of supervision by the senior officers.
“This is a clear manifestation of lack of supervision from the basic level of Corporals to higher levels of duty officers, security officers and officers-in-charge,” Mr Ogallo said.
He directed that all officers to be supervised and oversighted by their seniors during and after deployment to prevent such cases which he said were portraying the service in bad light.
“Besides the acts and omissions being criminal in nature they are also giving the service a bad image. This cannot be entertained any longer,” he warned.
