Inspector-General of Police Douglas Kanja says ridding the police service of rogue officers will take time.
On paper, the jurisdictional lines drawn by the Inspector-General of Police defining which areas form a division, county or region are meant to ensure order and accountability in law enforcement.
But in reality, some rogue officers have taken them as a dotted suggestion, crossing into their colleagues’ jurisdictions to rob, abduct and even kill civilians for personal gain.
Mr Guyo Dida, a deputy officer commanding station based in Kathonzweni, Machakos County, has twice been arrested on suspicion of misconduct related to operating in Nairobi County.
In October 2024, he was arrested while directing traffic at Bunyala roundabout in Nairobi, with his employer citing the offence of being on unauthorised traffic duties. He was allegedly found with a communication device registered to the Tourist Police Unit.
Three months later, the same officer was arrested on suspicion of demanding a bribe and assaulting his colleague. The colleague had tried to intervene as a detained motorist accused Mr Dida of fabricating a traffic offence she had not committed and demanding a Sh15,000 bribe to release her vehicle.
Mr Dida was handed over to the Kathonzweni sub-county police commander for disciplinary action.
In the last two weeks alone, 14 police officers and a prisons officer have been arrested in connection with grave crimes, which endangered the lives of the very civilians they swore an oath to protect.
Ten of those arrested are alleged to have committed crimes hundreds of kilometres from the police stations and regions that they are attached to.
Six of the officers arrested are based in Migori and are suspects in a robbery-with-violence case in which businessman Elvis Musyoka was beaten to near death before the attackers stole his green Toyota Prado.
Kisumu Central Police Station where the eight police officers are being held.
Investigations indicate that three of the Migori officers may be Mr Musyoka’s attackers, while the other five helped their colleagues move the car out of Migori police station after the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) opened a probe into the incident.
The three officers believed to have attacked Mr Musyoka are suspected to also be the masterminds of a carjacking syndicate operating along Kangundo Road in the general Joska area within the outskirts of Nairobi.
Joska, which is in Machakos County, is over 390 kilometres from Migori Police Station.
Mr Musyoka spent two weeks in the intensive care unit, and is expected to attend an identification parade once he gets better.
Last Wednesday, a Nairobi court ordered that five police officers and a prisons officer be detained for 10 days to allow their colleagues time to complete an investigation into weapons and ammunition trafficking in Turkana.
Investigations that led to their arrest accuse prisons officer Charles Ekidor Lotira of colluding with police officers Isaac Kipngetich, Cyrus Kisamwa Ileli and Samson Muriithi Mutongu of selling weapons, bought by taxpayers’ funds, to bandits in Turkana County.
Mr Lotira and Mr Kipngetich are based in Turkana County.
Mr Ileli is an armourer at the Central Firearms Stores in Industrial Area, Nairobi – over 630 kilometres from the destination of the arms. Mr Mutongu is a storeman, also based in Industrial Area.
“The breakthrough came when Corporal Kipngetich was caught receiving a consignment of 1,000 rounds of ammunition from Constables Ileli and Mutongu. [The ammunition] was intended for ASP (Assistant Superintendent of Police) Ekidor Lotira. Acting on additional intelligence, detectives later arrested Constable Mutongu, who was found in possession of 19 assorted firearm magazines, firing pins, cleaning kits, and three spent 9mm cartridges,” the DCI said in a statement.
Five of the six police officers accused of trafficking illegal firearms and ammunition to bandits in court on September 29, 2025.
The DCI said Constable Ileli was also arrested while in possession of a Remington Rand Model 1911 pistol and two Ceska pistol firing pins.
The two incidents are the tip of the iceberg that has haunted the National Police Service for years. However, Inspector-General of Police Douglas Kanja says that he and his team are working on eradicating the vice.
Mr Kanja said that the arrest of such officers is evidence that a majority of his officers do not apply the blue code of silence – an unwritten rule through which police officers protect colleagues who are afoul of the law.
Through spokesperson Muchiri Nyaga, Mr Kanja maintained that officers working outside of the law are criminals, and that they will be treated as such.
“For me, my delight is that these rogue officers are behind bars as we speak. The arresting officers are police officers themselves, which reinforces not just the professional calling for tens of thousands of the NPS members, but also the sincere call to duty in the service of the nation,” Mr Kanja said through the spokesperson.
However, ridding the police service of rogue officers will take time, he added.
“Rogue or criminal elements in an organisation will not go away overnight. No. There are officers, a small minority, who have been on the wrong side of the law, occasionally putting a stain on a service otherwise determined to work for the good of the people… It probably hasn’t happened quickly enough, but we all understand that this was never going to be an event, but rather a process that we must continually persist on until the whole police service aligns itself with the aspiration of the people,” Mr Kanja added.
At least 18 police officers have been convicted of serious crimes since 2015. Records from the National Council for Law Reporting indicate that the convictions varied from murder, robbery with violence and defilement, to bribery and resisting arrest.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has arrested several police officers in connection with bribery.
On October 2, 2024, the DCI announced that it had broken a syndicate behind a series of violent robberies in Meru, and recovered an M16 rifle besides arresting three suspected masterminds.
The operation was a collective effort by three DCI departments – the Criminal Research and Intelligence Bureau, the Operation Support Unit and the Operation Action Team.
What was not stated in the DCI social media communication was that one of the suspects was Dominic Munene Peter, a police corporal based in Marsabit County.
DCI head Mohamed Amin said the suspects were believed to have robbed several individuals in Imenti North and Buuri West sub-counties in Meru County.
In one incident, the attackers stormed a homestead in Magati village, making off with two prized cows – a Friesian and an Ayrshire – after firing five live rounds in the air to ward off angry villagers who attempted to give chase.
The same gang was linked to another incident on September 15, 2024 in Rugusu, where a dairy cow was loaded onto a getaway pickup truck before the robbers sped off. This was after shooting dead the homeowner.
Four years ago, two officers – Sergeant Albert Kimutai and Constable Martin Murimi – were charged in a Kisumu court with robbery with violence.
The officers were at the time based in the Sawagongo police post in Siaya County. They were accused of crossing into the neighbouring Kisumu County and attempting to rob businessman Pravin Ramji Patel of his money at Shreeji filling station.
The prosecution alleged that the offence was committed on August 12, 2021 and that the two officers were armed with AK-47 and G3 rifles.
