Lamu, KENYA: Coast regional coordinator has said the immense corruption amongst Lamu chiefs and their assistants has robbed Lamu of its security having resulted in rapid insecurity.
Marwa said the chiefs who are fond of taking bribes from any one have ended up allowing criminals and suspicious herders into the county who turn out to be Alshabaab at the end of the day.
He said the chiefs will accept any amount of bribe in order to allow criminal elements to operate within the county, without caring about the repercussions of their insatiable appetite for bribes on the security of the county.
Marwa said chiefs in all areas where Alshabaab have been conducting attacks and killing residents have been acting recklessly by taking bribes and allowing the militants to hide among locals while posing as herders.
Speaking in Lamu on Monday,Marwa said despite being aware that foreign herders had been ordered out of Lamu for security reasons,some of the chiefs had been bribed by the suspect herders and had infact allowed them to continue staying in Lamu.
The security coordinator also disbanded all community policing committees headed by chiefs in Lamu and ordered immediate formation of new ones, saying the current ones been greatly compromised and had been infiltrated by criminal elements and as such couldn’t continue functioning.
Normally,the committees are to work together with the police in implementing regulations that help deal with crime and insecurity.
Marwa also suspended several chiefs in the county whom he accused of sleeping on their jobs.
He said the committees are currently comprised cannot function accordingly since members seem to have been compromised.
He directed county commissioner Gilbert Kitiyo and his deputy Loius Rono to ensure speedy formation of new committees that will function devoid of corruption and undue influence.
“Many security challenges here in Lamu are done in the full knowledge of chiefs.These criminals and militants have been bribing their way here and killing locals and the chiefs are aware.They take bribes and allow militants to come and kill innocent civilians at will.Thats why I am disbanding all community policing committees here.Let new ones be formed where all communities will be respresented.We are also firing some of the chiefs whose actions have left people dead,”said Marwa.
He mocked the chiefs saying they were only good at gaining weight and warned that many more will be fired soon.
“I have fired the Hindi chief where four people were butchered recently with immediate effect.The other chiefs where people have been killed before will be issued with letters to that effect too.We cant have people risking the lives of locals like that.They must tell us where they were when these people were being killed,”said Marwa.
