Kenya police attack in Samburu: More bodies found

12 November 2012

BBC News

At least 42 officers were killed when cattle rustlers ambushed police, officials say, after more bodies were found on Monday.

The attackers used sophisticated weapons such as anti-personnel bombs and rocket-propelled grenades, one local official said.

A religious leader told the BBC that villagers feared being caught up in further revenge attacks.

This is the most deadly attack on the police in Kenya’s history.

Internal Security Minister Katoo ole Metito vowed to bring those responsible to justice, the Standard newspaper reports.

The officers were attacked in Baragoi in the northern Samburu County as they attempted to recover stolen cattle.

“They were ambushed by attackers bearing sophisticated weapons, including machine guns,” Rift Valley provincial commissioner Osman Warfa told the Reuters news agency.

The religious leader, who did not want to be named, said the situation was “tense, with heavily armed security personnel patrolling villages”.

“We fear the anger of these security people could fall on innocent civilians, as those who may have killed the policemen are nowhere now,” he said.

A security source who said that 42 bodies had been found told the BBC that the final death toll could be even higher.

Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said three of the attackers had been killed, while nine injured officers remained in hospital.

The local Samburu and Turkana communities often steal cattle from each other, and clash over grazing rights and access to water points.

A similar attack, in which 12 people were killed, took place nearby two weeks ago, Kenyan media report.

How I survived raid that killed 42 policemen

November 22, 2012

Nation Media Group

Details of how 40 police officers and reservists were killed in Baragoi came to light on Thursday with one of the volunteers who led them in the valley of death revealing how they were ambushed on that day.

Mr Sone Leskono is a member of the Kenya Police Reserve, popularly known as homeguards, who help with security in areas prone to cattle-rustling.

Although he has never attended any police training, he is convinced that Baragoi disaster was the result of betrayal, lax intelligence and police officers unfamiliar with the terrain.

The 27-year-old man was in the group of reservists accompanying a police detachment out to recover 450 cattle stolen from Samburu herders by rustlers from the neighbouring Turkana.

“It was like going direct into a trap laid for you by the enemy,” recalls Mr Leskono, who says he escaped death by the grace of God.

First he blames the police for leading them into battle without having any knowledge of the terrain. He also wonders why they relied on intelligence from a Turkana informer.

“When we left Baragoi Police Station, we were told that we would be going to tackle a group of 40 armed men, and since we were a total of 167 (107 policemen and 60 reservists) and we were fully armed, there was nothing to worry about,” he says.

They left the police station as early as 3am and the commander of the brigade, Mr Mark Kemboi, had instructed them not to kill women and children.

Officer in charge

Mr Kemboi was the officer in charge of Nachola GSU camp, located just 10 kilometres from where the attack took place.

Despite having worked in the area, Mr Kemboi appeared not to be conversant with the landscape as Mr Leskono observes:

“We had left so early but we only came face-to-face with the rustlers at 9am as no one knew the exact route to follow. The police appeared to have no knowledge at all of the area,” he adds.

Mr Leskono said they had to leave their vehicles behind and walk in the area with steep hills. There are also numerous dry river beds and caves that complicate the terrain.

They walked for more than five kilometres and by the time they sighted the manyatta(hut) downhill where the Turkana raiders had retreated, most of the police party was exhausted.

They had expected to find about 40 rustlers, as told by the informer, but “we could see 400 militia who were well armed and the animals they had stolen from us were grazing.

“But there were no women or children or even the old men. The manyatta was at the bottom of the valley but behind, there was another hill, which they all imagined our enemies would hide in and shoot at us.”

It was at this point that the security forces started to panic. “Most of them were young and they were terrified, like officers who have never been onto a battle field,” Mr Leskono says.

But they had one hope. Rustlers in the violent-prone region don’t usually attack police or other government officers. They only kill members of a rival community.

“This is what comforted us but before we even reached at the manyatta, our enemies retreated into the hill behind and from here, I knew the worst would happen.”

He recounts their commander, Mr Kemboi, leading them into the trap. “He led us to the manyatta and in a few minutes, our enemies started shooting.

“The first people to die were a reservist and police officer, and then Mr Kemboi. When that happened, we all lost hope and started scattering in different directions.”

It was such a humiliating defeat, recounted the police reservist who spoke to Nation from his Bendera home near Baragoi Town. He still cannot explain how he escaped.

“It was not my day to die and I don’t know how all the bullets failed to hit me,” he says. He was in a group that fled, with the rustlers in hot pursuit.

“I was with a police officer who was eventually shot dead but I managed to outwit the bandits and hid in a trench. Here, I found two other reservists and 10 police officers and again the bandits still followed us for another three kilometres.

“It is only three of us who survived by enduring the burning heat of Suguta Valley until we reached Maralal-Baragoi Road in Marti area still with our guns,” he says.

At the roadside, the three reservists who survived got a lift from a motorist after waiting for almost 10 hours, and reached their homes the following day.

He said most of the police officers died because they did not have the stamina to flee. “They were exhausted by the time we reached the manyatta if the enemy and they could not escape.”

At Nachola Village, most residents regretted the death of Kemboi whom they described as polite and social. “He was not like other police officers who like harassing people. Every time, he spent time with us chatting and he hardly collided with people,” a resident said.

Survivors recall pain and agony in the jungle after Samburu attack

November 14, 2012

Nation Media Group

Constable David Mwiti, an Administration Police officer attached to the Baragoi AP camp had been to several missions to recover stolen animals during the three months he was posted there.

But the mission on Saturday last week, in which 37 colleagues were killed by cattle rustlers, was the deadliest he had ever witnessed.

Mr Mwiti said about 107 police officers left the Samburu outpost and headed towards the mountains that morning hoping to recover the stolen animals.

He remembers the officers breaking into four groups, one in front and at the back and two others on either side, before they set off for the mission.

Mr Mwiti, 27, said the police brigade first scaled the first mountain, to get a view of the raiders or the stolen animals, and were able to spot three men in a bush and a herd of cattle they believed was the one that had been stolen.

“We climbed at least two mountains and were about to go up a third one when we heard gunshots and realised one group was under attack,” he said on his hospital bed at the Kenyatta National Hospital on Wednesday.

“What followed was a hail of bullets as the policemen took cover, not knowing where the shots were coming from or who was firing them,” he added.

Mr Mwiti was hit twice on the left leg and was carried off by another group of police officers, who were also running away from the bullets.

They however abandoned him in a thicket and fled. The officer took cover under a rock, where he tore part of his jacket and tied his leg to control bleeding.

The next two days were gruelling as he was forced to crawl up a mountain and spend a night in a thicket. He tried in vain, by waving his jacket in the air, to attract the attention of a rescue helicopter that hovered above.

“I did not eat anything during the time I was in the jungle, and was only saved by a politician who happened to pass by the road, where I lay helpless,” he recalls.

Earlier, two Kenya Police Reservists (KPRs) told NTV in an interview that the scene of the attack was dangerous, and that the police were ambushed by over 100 armed raiders.

Another survivor admitted at KNH, Mr Abdillahi Nur, 21, recalled how he lived for three days on water and biscuits in Baragoi as he and his colleagues pursued the raiders who had stolen 450 heads of cattle.

“At Nachola village which is inhabited by Turkanas, I was almost shot dead by a woman before I was escorted to a GSU camp from where I was later airlifted to KNH for treatment,” he said.
Thirteen police officers are admitted to the referral hospital following the attack.

Hospital spokesman Kibet Mengich said many of those admitted in the institution’s private wards are being treated for gun shot wounds. “These injuries include fractures, abdominal, chest and soft tissue injuries,” Mr Mengich said.

New hitch hits hunt for Baragoi bandits

November 26, 2012

Nation Media Group

Security forces cannot access a new Turkana settlement where rustlers who killed more than 40 policemen in Baragoi, Samburu County, have pitched tent.

Nawapeto Manyatta is located in wilderness about 25 kilometres from Baragoi Town and vehicles taking humanitarian aid to the villagers have to cruise through the bush for lack of roads.

The occupants of the manyatta, which is strategically located on a low lying area, can see any vehicle coming towards them from more than five kilometres. They use binoculars to spot any visitors.

The nearest manyatta is about 11 kilometres away. “This place is being controlled by Turkana militias and no GK vehicle can access it,” Rift Valley provincial commissioner Osman Warfa told the Nation on Monday.

Mr Warfa said only vehicles with the emblem of the Kenya Red Cross Society are allowed into the area.

Military combat aircraft hovering over the manyatta has caused panic among the residents who fear that there are plans to bomb them.

Security personnel are hunting down the killer bandits in a bid to recover 450 cattle the Turkana raiders stole from Samburus on October 20. The theft of these animals led to the Baragoi massacre. (READ: Cattle raids and tribal rivalries to blame for perennial conflict)

Samburu county commissioner Wilfred Nyagwanga had last week directed Turkana chiefs to convince the occupants of the manyatta to return guns and ammunitions stolen from the police during the November 10 attack.

But the inhabitants reportedly declined to cooperate with the chiefs, who until yesterday were still trying to persuade them.

Meanwhile, members of the parliamentary committee on security on Monday landed in Maralal where they held a meeting. But Turkana leaders complained that they were not represented in the team led by Mt Elgon MP Fred Kapondi.

Other members of the team are MPs Chachu Ganya (North Horr), Raphael Letimalo (Samburu East) and Maison Leshoomo (Nominated).

Baragoi killers using women and children as human shields

November 18, 2012

Nation Media Group

The cattle rustlers who killed more than 40 policemen in Baragoi are using women and children as human shield to avoid arrest, it was revealed on Sunday.

Rift Valley Provincial Police boss John M’Mbijjiwe, who is leading the crackdown, told the Nation that they were having difficulty separating women and children from the suspects hiding in the Suguta Valley.

“They are moving in a single file with the children driving the livestock and the bandits positioning themselves ready to attack. Women are also in the group moving with the animals,” said Mr M’Mbijjiwe at Baragoi Primary School grounds.

He said the security officers were taking caution to avoid civilian deaths and injuries.

“We want to make sure that no innocent life is lost and we also want to ensure that the bandits who killed my officers are captured so that they can face the law,” the police boss said.

However, he said only 35 security agents were killed, although independent sources put the toll at 41.

A police chopper has been conducting aerial surveillance in Suguta Valley in preparation of a swoop by a joint force of the police and the army.

On Sunday, two military choppers arrived in Maralal Town and are expected to provide aerial cover when the operation starts.

The cattle rustlers ambushed a contingent of 107 security officers who had been deployed to recover stolen animals on Saturday last week.

They also stole firearms from the slain officers, who were from the regular and administration police, GSU and the anti-stock theft unit, before fleeing into Suguta Valley.

Meanwhile, hundreds of residents are fleeing Baragoi for Maralal Town, as tension continued to rise in the area. More police officers have also continued to arrive in the township, which is being patrolled day and night.

A senior police officer told the Nation that Turkana South MP Josephat Nanok and his Turkana Central counterpart Ekwee Ethuro will be charged in court this morning with incitement to violence.

Mr Nanok was arrested on Friday and detained at the Kileleshwa Police Station after he allegedly refused to cooperate with detectives. Mr Ethuro was released on a police bond after recording a statement on Saturday.

The detectives are also expected to interrogate Labour minister John Munyes. The minister told a press conference at Parliament Buildings last week that police should have sought their help to convince the rustlers to return the animals instead of planning the military operation.

Mr Nanok, who is also Forestry assistant minister, warned that President Kibaki risked being taken to the International Criminal Court for authorising the deployment of the army.

At the same time, the family of Jillo Woche, 26, said he was still missing after the attack. Mr Woche was attached to the Anti-Stock Theft Unit and comes from Marsabit County.

“We have tried to search for his body all over in the last five days and we have now given up,” said his elder brother, Mr Musa Chude. But the unit’s commandant, Mr Michael Ngugi, said Mr Woche’s body could be among the four recovered on Thursday by police.

Police officers killed in Baragoi were young, had no experience

June 22, 2016

Nation Media Group

A majority of the officers who died in the Baragoi massacre in 2012 were young and inexperienced, with some have graduated only two months before the operation, a Nakuru court has heard.

Chief Inspector Robert Owino, a former police boss who was among those who led the botched cattle recovery mission, told the court that out of the 42 officers killed in the attack, 18 were APs.

“Majority of the security officers killed by bandits were largely inexperienced and unsure of the treacherous Suguta Valley and so surrendered to guidance by Samburu home guards before they were attacked,” said Mr Owino.

According to Mr Owino the families of two of his junior colleagues have never found their loved ones since the attack.

The officer, who is currently attached to the Inspector-General of police’s command unit, revealed that three General Service Unit, four Kenya Police and four Anti-Stock Theft Unit officers, and 13 police reservists died in the attack that shocked the nation.

CHARGED IN COURT

Mr Owino was testifying in a case where Nachola ward representative Lawrence Lorunyei, chiefs Christopher Lokerach, Enoi Lesike, Amojong Loturo and Jeremiah Ekurao, reservist Loomira Looyen and ranger Ekai Loyee have denied involvement in the Baragoi killings.

The seven accused who are facing robbery with violence charges are out on a Sh5 million bond each.

Mr Owino revealed that up to date there is still confusion as to how many police officers died in the massacre.

However, he said that the then Commissioner of Police Mathew Iteere confirmed that 42 officers had lost their lives in the ill-fated operation where over 50 firearms were also lost.

He further disclosed that prior to the commencement of the crackdown on Turkana raiders who had stolen the cattle from Ndoto Village in Samburu on October 19, 2012, 106 police officers drawn from the AP, GSU, Anti-stock Unit (ASTU) and regular police were dispatched to pursue the cattle rustlers.

The officer was among those who escaped death by a whisker as he had been left behind to lead a group that was assigned to guard police vehicles.

GROUPED INTO PLATOONS

“Prior to the ill-fated operation, our commanders then Samburu North OCPD Chrispin Makhanu and chief of police operations Willy Lugusa grouped us into four platoons. I was told to head platoon number four which was left to guard police vehicles,” said Mr Owino.

He told the court that the platoon of 20 officers he was leading was to tactfully make a withdrawal in case of danger.

“Those of us left behind knew that our colleagues had a dangerous task ahead but we remained composed and hid in the tickets,” he narrated.

The officers were ambushed by over 100 armed attackers while they were deep into the valley minutes after they had spotted the stolen animals.

The attackers shot them randomly with a hail of bullets from all directions.

“Shortly after we had embarked on the operation in the ‘Valley of Death’, our colleagues who went deep into the valley were attacked and a fierce exchange of fire followed.

SAVED BY GOD’S GRACE

“Some of us were only saved by the grace of God as we had been left behind,” said the teary officer while narrating the chilling account of the attack.

He said that at around 11am they received a call instructing them to withdraw the vehicles immediately.

They then knew that their colleagues were in danger.

“We were told officers had been injured and indeed after retreating to a safe distance we were joined by other survivors with whom we tactfully rescued those injured and rushed them to the Baragoi District Hospital,” he said.

The officer however, reiterated that the operation was ill-fated, ill-executed, and involved inexperienced officers who had graduated less than two months prior to the operation.

The hearing was adjourned to September 13, 2016.

Samburu County killings: Kenya’s ‘valley of death‘

BBC News

19 November 2012

Cacti, acacia trees and dust – these are the last things young Kenyan police recruits saw when they were gunned down in an ambush in one of the most inhospitable places on earth.

The Suguta valley is harsh on the living and even harsher on the dead, whose bodies have lain out in searing heat for days amid much public criticism.

The Kenyan military is now being deployed from the north to support the police’s rapid response unit which is already on the ground.

In the coming days, it is expected to push forward into the valley from the north, hunt down the herdsmen, disarm them and push them back. During this uncomfortable lull, nearly everyone you speak to fears revenge and entire villages have been abandoned.

Situated some 550km (340 miles) north-west of Nairobi near the town of Baragoi, this place has been dubbed “the Valley of Death” – inhospitable terrain, bandit country.

One of the world’s hottest places, it has long been the battleground for rival communities – marginalised herdsmen from the Turkana and Samburu communities, who steal each other’s livestock and fight for scarce resources.

‘Badly planned’
But this time round it was the police who found themselves the target. Ambushed as they tried to intercept Turkana cattle “rustlers”, who were lying in wait.

It took two-and-a-half hours scrambling over rocks and across hills before reaching the bloodstained grass where the dead policemen lay.

In this exposed piece of land, it is clear they didn’t stand a chance as heavily armed Turkana herdsmen opened fire from positions higher up.

The police units, some villagers claim, had members of the Samburu community in their midst, raising questions about partisan policing.

As a police helicopter lands close to us, preparing to take the bodies away, Omar Moyo desperately searches the badly decomposed corpses and bloodstained uniforms for clues.

His 27-year-old cousin is among those feared dead – he was one of the policemen sent on this mission and has now been missing for almost a week.

Mr Moyo seethes at what he claims was a “badly planned operation” by lacklustre police bosses commanding a force which few Kenyans respect.

But he is even more angry at what this incident means for the months ahead as Kenya prepares for national elections under a new constitution.

The authorities have been holding public meetings to try and stop the violence

“Security is a national issue. If the government can’t handle even one community like the Turkana, I think it is very hard to contain the all communities in Kenya,” he warns.

In the aftermath of elections in 2007, at least 1,200 people died after politicians whipped up ethnic tensions that triggered violence on an unprecedented scale.

Although what happened in the Sugutu Valley was a local dispute, other flashpoints in recent months further south in Mombasa and Tana River have raised concerns about security in East Africa’s economic hub at this critical time.

Questions are now being asked about the capacity of the Kenyan security services to protect civilians in the lead-up to the national elections.

‘Home guard’
Not least because historically the police have been used as a political force, vacillating between inaction in responding to insecurity on the one hand to heavy handedness and impunity on the other.

More frightening still is the fact that weapons proliferation has increased in this part of Kenya, according to the Small Arms Survey, with many illegal firearms smuggled in from Somalia and South Sudan.

Traditionally the pastoralist communities in northern Kenya have been armed by the state and left to provide their own security under a “home guard” system.

In light of this latest incident, the most senior administrator for Rift Valley Province, Osman Warfa, admits the authorities will have to review this security policy and, in time, the state may re-claim policing this community.

The stakes are getting higher for policing in these deprived parts of northern Kenya with the discovery of oil and more autonomy under the new constitution.

Without a professional police force here, this vast landscape risks becoming “rebel territory”.

“We have some extremely good police officers,” argues prominent human rights activist Maina Kiai, formerly the head of Amnesty International in Kenya.

“The problem is the political will does not exist.”

With the advent of multi-party politics in 1992, he recalls how insecurity was used to consolidate power in the centre:

“The government of [former President Daniel arap] Moi used violence and tensions to reduce the vote and intimidate the country. So much that so that many parts of the country said: ‘We are going to vote with Moi because at least we will get security.'” When governments crack down, it’s the incumbent who tends to win.

Mr Kiai’s analysis sounds conspiratorial – after all a referendum on the new constitution passed off without any trouble, and Kenya is now a very different place to what it was under Mr Moi.

The new basic law has ushered in reforms to the judiciary, devolution and emboldened the Kenyan public to demand more accountability.

Yet the promised shake-up of a corrupt and unpopular police force is still lagging behind, and that is what is worrying so many Kenyans.

Though no-one can say for sure why the police became the target of the recent attack, it points to a wider malaise across Kenya’s arid north.

Whole villages have been deserted as people fear reprisals

A man who simply called himself Andrew, while not sympathising with violence against the state, explained the frustration felt by many people: “You can see the lack of development here, there are no roads. We pay our taxes and we don’t see anything in return.”

The Kenyan authorities are trying to play events down, extinguishing any whiff of talk of political manipulation and assuring the public that the military action in the coming days will not target a particular community.

But parallels are being drawn with violent elections last time around. Its epicentre was the Rift Valley province – where the recent ambush took place.

But Mr Warfa insists: “There will be no election violence.”

The county where the ambush took place has a population of less than 240,000, he says, whereas: “We are talking about a population in Rift Valley of 10 million.”

But it is a hard message to sell.

An entire manyatta, or village, on the edge of the Sugutu Valley has been swept clean.

A little over a week ago it was home to several thousand herdsmen and their livestock. Now the place is deserted.

Just the igloo-style huts made from tree branches and mud remain.

With the military now promising to “come down hard” following the audacious attack on the police, the community has fled fearing reprisals.

It comes just a week before voter registration begins in this part of the country.

Neglected and left to die: The shame of police in Kenya

November 17, 2012

Nation Media Group

On the morning of April 17, 2012, several police officers were woken up by the crackle of gunfire coming in from all directions at their base camp in Todonyang, Turkana, not far from the border between Kenya and Ethiopia.

Three hundred Merille bandits had targeted the Raid Police Response Unit camp set up to deal with constant raids on Turkana families from across the border. The over 300 Merille rustlers were finally overpowered. They retreated.

And as they left, two young policemen were lying lifeless on the ground. That incident barely caused a ripple on the national scale.

The killing of 42 police officers in Baragoi in the Suguta Valley last week has shocked the nation only because of its scale.

It is easily the largest single loss of life by the armed forces in a single incident over the last three decades.

But the fact is that the killing of policemen in Kenya is now a routine affair. The police have become the most expendable professionals in the country.

From Mombasa to Tana River to Garissa to Nairobi, policemen are killed every week, with the toll over the last three months hitting well over 60.

The murder of uniformed officers – an unthinkable offence in many parts of the world – has come to be viewed as normal. In Garissa, according to postings on social media, visitors are advised to stay away from policemen and churches if they want to stay alive.

“It is unacceptable for society to place such a low premium on the lives of the police,” says Dr George Kinyanjui, programme coordinator at the Private Sector Development Trust (PSDT).

“Police officers are playing the role elders had in traditional African society of maintaining law and order. The only difference is that they have additional powers to effect arrest and take people to court. They should be among the most valued members of society.”

The casual murder of police officers leaves their families in especially vulnerable situations because Kenyan police are among the few in the world who have no life insurance. (Editorial: Baragoi tragedy should provide a turning point)

Taxpayers will not contribute anything to the families of the nearly 100 officers killed in the line of duty in the past year.

Instead, every month, all police officers contribute Sh50 from their salaries to a pool of funds which is used to cater for officers killed or injured while at work.

The Kenya Police Medical Fund, introduced in 1995, serves as the only fallback for officers who are shot while at work.

Both the Moi and Kibaki governments have at various points promised to offer insurance to the police.

In 2000, senior officers requested that police stop paying deductions to the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) so that they could channel that Sh300 into the police medical fund to purchase insurance.

The offer was rejected on the grounds that they would soon be insured. Twelve years later, the people who perform one of the most dangerous jobs in the country – a job that has become ever more perilous amid multiplying threats from the Al Shabaab and ever better armed cattle bandits – have no insurance.

“It is very unrealistic and selfish of us as a society to expect security from policemen who work in such conditions,” says Dr Kinyanjui.

“A holistic approach should be taken to address their welfare. It is not just about higher pay. The canteens within police stations can be upgraded to duty free supermarkets where they can buy food at affordable rates. They should be able to import vehicles duty-free in the same way the MPs do. They have wives who can’t spend the whole day sitting in the house. The police Sacco should offer lending for them to start businesses. When police have enough income they will automatically stop asking for bribes and society will respect them more.”

The officers’ lack of insurance is compounded by extremely poor working conditions for policemen.

In a new report, the Usalama Reforms Forum lobby group carried out a study of 21 police stations around the country to assess the resources they work with and how effectively prepared they are to handle their tasks.

One of the stations examined was Baragoi, which serves the area where dozens of young recruits were mowed down in the unforgiving terrain of the Suguta Valley.

The report, Communities and their Police Stations, a Study Report of 21 Police Stations in Kenya, concluded that the station was thoroughly under-equipped:

“Baragoi police station is housed in Kenya Wildlife Services’ premises. All the buildings and most of the facilities at the station were constructed by KWS and not the Kenya Police. The divisional police office is hosted at the District Commissioner’s compound next to the station. The Officer Commanding the Police Division (OCPD) occupies a room meant for the District Officer who has since moved to the District Commissioner’s office to create room for the OCPD. The office has only three officers, namely the OCPD, his deputy and staff and operating officers who also share one office.”

Dr Charles Otieno, a policy analyst who was one of the lead authors of the report said the reform process of the police service should be modified to focus on improving the police station as a unit of service delivery.

“We should have different types of police stations depending on the local needs. Those planning the location of these stations should factor in population ratio in relation to the number of stations. They should also examine the specific needs of each location to supply equipment and police numbers that correspond with the challenges faced in those locations.”

The wave of sympathy for the police should not obscure real challenges within the police force itself particularly a collapse of leadership that has exposed many officers to casual deaths.

Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere has not addressed several questions security analysts have been asking.

For example, why have senior officers been sending their newest, most inexperienced officers to areas where there are major security challenges?

In September, dozens of new recruits who were hardly a week out of college were sent to Tana River following deadly inter-communal fighting.

On September 9, a few days after arriving in the field, nine officers were killed in an ambush at Kilelengwani – most of them new recruits.

Only two months later, Mr Iteere and his senior officers repeated the mistake. Those killed in Baragoi included dozens of young men who had not received their first payslip since joining the force.

Then there is the question of political neutrality. A police source who has served in Samburu said it was a major tactical error to include Samburu police reservists in the team that went on the mission to Turkana.

Many police reservists in Turkana, Samburu and Pokot are suspected of being major cattle rustlers themselves. Including them on a mission to any of those areas can often be seen as an abandonment of neutrality on the part of the authorities.

Nothing, though, can justify the killing of 42 policemen in cold blood. The frustration among many is that the shock and anger across society has not been reflected in the upper reaches of government.

There has been no order to fly flags at half-mast, as often happens when prominent people are killed and there have been few real gestures of sympathy for the dead men from the authorities.

The issue of compensation for the dead officers’ families has not been discussed – and it is unclear how the burial arrangements are being made.

More scandalously, police headquarters does not maintain an up to date roll of honour of the officers killed in the line of duty, in contrast to the Kenya Wildlife Service which has erected a statue at its headquarters where the names of each officer killed by poachers is inscribed.

Efforts by the Sunday Nation to get photos of some of those killed in the last year collapsed after Vigilance House stopped picking our calls from Friday.

Stark contrast

The attitude to police killings in Kenya stands in stark contrast to that in more developed countries.

On September 18, two female police officers on the beat were shot dead in Manchester, United Kingdom, while responding to a distress call.

Their killing brought the nation to a standstill. Parliament discussed whether to re-introduce the death penalty for criminals who killed the police; with a former conservative chairman Lord Tebbit saying such people should feel the “deterrent effect of the shadow of the gallows”.

The Queen led the nation in mourning the slain officers. Newspapers went into such a frenzy of condemnation of the act that the Attorney General had to warn them against prejudicing the rights of the suspected killer.

One newspaper produced a graphic of all police officers killed in the line of duty since 1680, reflecting the levels of record-keeping on that issue in that country.

On the Tuesday they were killed, Manchester United football club players wore black armbands and a minute’s silence was observed before the start of their Champions League match against Galatasaray.

Thousands poured into the streets of Manchester to offer their tributes and the local police chief came under pressure to resign for offering the suspected killer bail over an earlier offence.

Nothing of the sort happened in Kenya. These days, the killing of police officers is little more than a weekly ritual.