Two Siaya legislators have called on the top brass at Vigilance House to take charge of the investigations into the murder of journalist Eric Oloo who died in the house of a senior police officer at the Ugunja police station.
Ugunja MP, Opiyo Wandayi and his Ugenya counterpart, David Ochieng, said police cannot run away from the blame for the murder of the slain scribe, Oloo, who, until his death, was a correspondent with The Star Newspaper.
They said that the fact that the journalist was found murdered in the bedroom of a chief inspector of police, with whom they had been living as a man and wife, left more questions that the police must strive to answer to win the confidence of the local residents.
Ugunja MP, Wandayi called on the Director of Criminal Investigations department to take charge of the investigations, saying that the local investigators could not be expected to handle the matter fairly.
Addressing mourners during the burial of the slain journalist at Ugunja town, Wandayi and Ochieng said they will pursue the matter to its logical conclusion.
“We are closely monitoring how the police, court and any other relevant bodies are handling the matter,” said Ochieng
Ochieng said he was ready, as a lawyer, to represent the family of the late scribe in court in quest for justice.
His Ugunja counterpart, Wandayi lamented over the deteriorating insecurity in his constituency and joined the residents in calling for the overhaul of the local police force.
Wanadyi, the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee in parliament as well as the Orange Democratic Movement Director of Political Affairs, said indiscipline within the police service in the area had reached a level where the public no longer has faith in the officers.
“The policemen here have overstayed, to the point that they snatch our wives and daughters. We cannot tolerate this,” he said adding that it was high time the national police service came up with a policy that ensures an officer does not overstay in one station for long.
Earlier, local leaders, among them former councilor, Onyango Lopez said they will organise a huge demonstration to kick out the local police if the government fails to arraign in court a female chief inspector of police in whose house the body of the slain journalist was found.
Lopez said that the journalist’s murder was a culmination of a series of crimes that include murder and stock theft that has hit the locality, with little being done to tackle them.
“If no action will have been taken within the next one week, we shall organise a huge demonstration from as far as Kayombi and Rambula to the police station to kick out these people whose only business is to harass and collect bribes from bodaboda,” he told the charged mourners.
By Philip Onyango
