Senior Kenyan policeman killed

Police say they are under resourced and over stretched

By Alice Muthengi in Nairobi

Armed gangsters killed a senior police in Nairobi's Sinai slum on Tuesday evening.

He was gunned down in a fire exchange with armed robbers.

Recently the minister in charge of internal security, Marsden Madoka, ordered the police to kill on sight armed gangsters following increased cases of car jacking

The police inspector was shot in the stomach when he and other officers from the special crime prevention unit raided a house said to belong to suspected gangsters.

Police spokesman Peter Kimanthi who confirmed the incident said a number of suspects have been arrested and are helping the police with investigations.

Mr Kimanthi said the police also recovered an automatic pistol, suspected to have been stolen from an FBI agent investigating the 1998 terrorist attack in Nairobi, eight rounds of ammunition, travellers checks, expensive clothes and an assortment of mobile phones.

Firefights common

Exchanges of fire between gangsters and police have become almost common place, but it now appears the criminals have also declared war on the police.

Public confidence in the police is at a low ebb

Another senior police officer was killed when gangsters opened fire at him in a city estate, while another was killed when armed robbers attacked a van ferrying employee salaries for the railway corporation.

The police however say they will not be cowed by such actions and have declared war on the criminals.

Recently the minister in charge of internal security, Marsden Madoka, ordered the police to kill on sight armed gangsters following increased cases of car jacking.

Only last week six nurses were raped at gun point after armed robbers hijacked the matatu [taxi] they were travelling in.

Equipment and manpower

The police lack the logistics to combat crime and Kenyans often accuse them of taking time to arrive at a crime scene.

A cartoon in one of Wednesday's papers sums up what many Kenyans feel - it shows one police officer struggling to answer a hundred incoming SOS calls.

The police however are pointing fingers at the people whom they accuse of not exposing criminals living among them.