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Kenya

Saitoti orders crackdown against crime surge

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 28- Internal Security Minister George Saitoti has held a meeting with top security commanders in the wake of a crime wave that has hit Nairobi and other urban areas.

Professor Saitoti who briefed the media after the meeting ordered Police Commissioner Major General Hussein Ali, his Administration Police counterpart Kinuthia Mbugua and Coast Provincial Commissioner Ernest Munyi to review their operational strategies and deal with the crime surge.

"The government will not allow criminals to come and appear like they are ruling this country, that we will not allow and we shall reasonably rebuke them to ensure that Kenyans are safe and their property are protected."

A tough-talking Prof Saitoti said the police would crack down hard on organised gangs that are behind the rise of criminal incidences in Nairobi and few rural areas.

He said there had been a rise in cases of cattle rustling and inter-community conflicts.

"As the minister responsible, I wish to assure Kenyans that the government is doing everything possible to ensure that these criminal activities are quickly contained and that all the perpetrators of these crimes are arrested and charged in court," he said.

Five police officers were gunned down on Saturday in two separate incidents in Athi River and Mombasa.

In the first incident, officers attached to the Athi River CID offices were in a station wagon vehicle patrolling the Nairobi-Mombasa highway when they stumbled into a robbery at a fuel station, according to police.

In Mombasa, two senior Administration Police officers were killed by their regular Police counterparts.

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The minister also directed that thorough investigation be carried out to establish circumstances behind the Mombasa incident.
"What we are looking at is under what circumstances the officers were killed and anyone implicated will be fully held accountable," he said.

"I do not want to entertain the thought that the two forces are in conflict or in competition with each other. If individuals within either force committed a crime you cannot attribute it to the entire force, you have to handle it singularly."

Professor Saitoti attributed the increase in insecurity to the growing instability in Somalia and the economic recession which has led to the growing unemployment rates.

"As the number of countries around get unstable we have began to see (an increased use) of weapons," said the Minister.

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