Hi Nyakundi, after carefully looking at the Ndirangu case, I’m surprised at what is going on in our prisons. Just recently there have been multiple cases of prisoners and staff engaging in unwarranted violence. This one specific case has brought and geared up some attention and I see fit to air my views on it.
Firstly, I don’t understand why an argument should escalate to a point of violence no matter the case. It is only human that we disagree and as disciplined forces they are also allowed to disagree but with some level of civility. However, this one went too far to an extent that it is alleged the senior officer went assaulted the junior officer with a weapon.
You see during my heydays such an officer would have coined the case and with enough evidence he would have even accused the officer who accosted him with robbery with violence,(Kiswahili Ya Jela) as is commonly referred. But here the case was different and the officer was assaulted in the prison compound with the wife watching and no one dared help him.
I don’t understand where a human being in his right senses will act with impunity to an extent of assaulting another officer in front of junior officers using a weapon in this case a gun and still walk free. Assault is assault but impunity is also impunity. Such crops of officers have found their way into our prisons and they go round carrying themselves as if they are the untouchables.
They love insulting junior officers in a derogatory manner. They do this even in front of the officer’s wives and kids. The wives of these senior officers in most stations will even insult or abuse the junior officer’s wives in the staff lines and even the junior staff themselves. When these cases are brought before the authorities they are either ignored or the junior officer reprimanded.
The same senior officers most of whom do not have job titles in our prisons have devised ways of oppressing junior officers like soliciting bribes from them in order to give them small favours or even exempt them from orderly proceedings which are not merited in the first place. I find it weird and even out of context for people who are paid highly to go low to extents of soliciting small bribes from their junior officers who even earn less than them.
I call upon the commissioner general of prisons, the regional commanders to investigate these cases and ask for dossiers, statements and even names of such officers for investigation. Impunity must end in our stations and these senior officers should be brought to justice. Our friend and colleague Ndirangu should get the justice he deserves and sanity must be brought to our prisons once and for all. The officer in charge stations found to condone this impunity should also be held responsible for staff under their jurisdiction. The law is the law and we should strive to uphold the integrity of our national flag and the flag of our department.
These guys known as senior officers do nothing except just walk around the whole day and get paid. What is a small station with a population of 200 staff members doing with a workforce of 20 gazzeted officers? A police OCS mans an entire area with more in terms of human population.
Here we have more than 20 unskilled and corrupt officials who have only risen to their ranks because of corruption. These senior officers have stolen money meant for officers welfare and even salaries and have pocketed every bit of it. Refer to the recent case where billions are under investigation by the CS. People feel oppresed but fear coming out lest they be singled out and given punishment in form of transfers.
This impunity of awarding relatives who end up causing chaos in the department is rampant and unwarranted. These people should be in jail. They are just like the same criminals they are guarding!
