A special crime prevention team is set to be deployed to Nyandarua County to help fight rising cases of insecurity, including recent gruesome murders targeting women and children in the region.
This is according to Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, who said the team that was being assembled by Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai will help tame murders and cattle rustling in the county.
“The team that will be assembled by the IG from the headquarters will help pursue the masterminds and perpetrators of crimes that have been happening,” said Dr Matiang’i on Monday when he led high level national government officials on a tour of the region.
The CS was accompanied by Cabinet Secretaries Sicily Kariuki (Water), Mutahi Kagwe (Health), the Inspector General of Police, Central Regional Commissioner Wifred Nyagwanga and local leaders led by Governor Francis Kimemia.
He also asked chiefs to collaborate with religious leaders to reverse the trend of the rising cases of gender-based violence in the county.
“We must rise to the occasion to protect those who are vulnerable and bring to book those involved in the gruesome murders,” he noted.
There has been a spike in cases of murder in Nyandarua, with police data indicating that about nine people, most of them women, have been murdered in a span of six months.
TARGETING WOMEN, CHILDREN
The killings by unknown people appear to follow the same patterns, with the murderers preferring to pounce on women and children at night.
In some instances, the women — both elderly and young — are undressed and raped before being hacked to death.
On April 23, 2020, a 30-year-old woman and her five-year-old daughter succumbed to injuries inflicted by their attacker(s) while undergoing treatment at the Nyahururu County Referral hospital.
Eunice Muthoni Ndung’u and her daughter Linet Njeri, a grade one pupil, died of head injuries after unknown assailant(s) dug through the wall of their house where the two and other children were sleeping at their Chekaleri village home, Ol Joro Orok, and attacked them.
Another daughter, aged 13, and a niece, 17, who suffered head and mouth injuries were admitted at a Nakuru hospital.
On March 25, Alice Wanjiru, 23, was murdered in a similar manner at Gatumbiro village in Ol Joro Orok constituency after unknown person(s) dug a tunnel into her house where she was sleeping and hacked her to death using a machete.
Months ago, a 57-year-old mother of 10 and her 15-year-old daughter escaped death after criminals dug a hole into their house at Kwa Major Village in Weru, Ol Joro Orok, and entered their bedroom.
They suffered knife injuries to the head but were saved by villagers who responded to their screams.
CATTLE THEFT
On cattle rustling in the County, Dr Matiang’i blamed unnamed individuals for financing theft in the region.
“What is happening here is not cattle rustling but systematic crime supported and funded by some individuals benefiting from the trend. The team will be embedded here until we get hold of the last criminal,” he said.
He said that top security officials in the county will be reshuffled in major changes as one way of beefing up security in the devolved unit.
Last month, Nyandarua West Sub-County Police Commander (SCPC) Isaac Rutto was transferred.
Mr Rutto was moved to Khwisero Sub-County, Kakamega County and replaced by Mr Wanyama Nyongesa who was the SCPC in charge of Nandi North.