Shock as Police officers ‘steal’ Occurrence Book at station

Police officers in Garissa have launched investigations into an incident where three police officers who had been arrested liaised with other colleagues to steal an Occurrence Book (OB) in which details of their case had been recorded. In a police report filed at Liboi Police Station, Mr Isaac Koech, Mr Michael Mwendwa and Mr Benard Eshitemi (all police constables) who had been booked for breaking out of the police lines and illegal erecting of a roadblock at Wajir County are accused of masterminding the stealing of the OB book. “It was reported by David Masinde who was the report office personnel that he had gone to the OCPD’s office and when he went back to the report office he found the OB book missing,” the report read in part. “It is suspected the three officers have a connection with it the disappearance of the OB inquiry file number 1/2022 opened,” it further read. This comes just days after a military officer identified as Paul Minai Gichuhi allegedly broke into Twelve Engineers Battalion in Thika Barracks and stole a firearm. The incident happened moments after Mr Gichuhi was dismissed and cleared from the forces. The matter was reported to Thika Police Station by two military officers identified as Mr John Kibaki and Mr Alvin Nyasio. Detectives attached to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) are yet to recover the firearm. The main suspect is also yet to be nabbed as his whereabouts remain unknown. It is worth noting that any civilian found with a gun meant for security organs just like in the above case risks life imprisonment as proposed by the 2015 Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill. According to the Firearms Act, 2012 civilians cannot be given rifles like an Ak47, MP5, and a G3. The Act states that for one to own a firearm they may have to meet a number of requirements before being handed the weapon. An occurrence book, commonly known as an OB, is used to record all security-related activities that occur during a period of duty. Daily activity reports are a critical part of every security operation.