Following the public outrage that the National Police Service is failing Kenyans owing to rising cases of broad daylight stabbings, shootings, rape, defilement, and murder across the country, which largely go unsolved. The new Inspector General of Police, Japhet Koome, has now issued a one-month ultimatum to criminals to surrender their illegally owned guns to authorities.

On Monday, Koome urged the criminals who are now terrorising Kenyans from different parts of the country to hand over their weapons before they are dealt with.

After having a long meeting with Nairobi County governor Johnson Sakaja, the police boss said that they have devised a robust mechanism on how to thwart the spike of crime in the city.

“We have agreed in our meeting to give these young people in possession of guns one month. Surrender to the police that gun you are illegally holding. Whoever is threatening Kenyans’ peace will be dealt with by our well-trained officers,” Koome said.

Formation of County Policing authority will also be one of the strategies to deal with the vice. The Inspector General however denied a go-slow within the service as the reason for the surge in crime.

Japhet now has promised that it will not be business as usual even in the cattle rustling-infested North Rift region.
By Jane Kibathi.