Deputy Inspector General of Police Mr. Edward Mbugua has said police officers can move out of stations and record statements from persons living with disabilities who have fallen victims of crime.
Mbugua on Friday noted that it has been a challenge for a person with a disability to reach at stations and make reports or record statements after they have been affected by criminal activities.
Failure of the officers to reach out to the people at their homes, he noted, has in many cases contributed to dismissal of cases affecting the disabled due to lack of concrete evidence.
The Deputy IG was speaking in Maragua Police station when he graced an occasion organized by Ahadi Kenya Trust in partnership with Fungua Biz organization to clean the station and donate food to the people living with disability.
He was reacting to a request by the Director of Ahadi Kenya Dr. Stanely Kamau who observed that persons living with disability rarely get needed assistance when they are robbed or assaulted by criminals.
“Cases like rape and defilement meted to people with disabilities are hardly concluded since the victims experience problems while recording statements at police stations,” he added.
“I request the police service to work out modalities on how the persons living with disabilities can get help and be assisted when they fall as victims of crime. Some of them even have no capacity to make reports at police stations,” added Kamau.
He further said many police stations across the country lack facilities for the disabled including special toilets.
“As Ahadi Kenya we appeal for provision of facilities at all police stations to help those with disabilities when they visit the stations to seek help. We will partner with the Police Service and give our support in making sure the needed facilities are put in place,” he added.
Meanwhile the Deputy IG directed Murang’a county police commander Mr. Josphat Kinyua to mobilize officers and eradicate trafficking of bhang and brewing of illicit liquor in the county.
This came after Maragua MP Mary Waithera observed that some areas have been affected by an increase of bhang abuse and selling of illicit brews.
Waithera said shortage of officers had greatly occasioned an increase of selling and abuse of bhang in some parts of Maragua Sub county.
Mbugua said the county police commander can mobilize officers from the county and deploy them to those areas where the increased bhang trafficking and illicit brews have been reported.
“It just needs a few days of operation and those criminal activities of selling and smoking bhang together with illicit brews would cease,” posed the Deputy IG.
During the occasion, 200 disabled people were given foodstuffs and cleaning materials while 20 water tanks were issued for onward distribution to some police stations in the county.
By Bernard Munyao