The opening of a police post at Mitheru in Maara Sub-county of Tharaka-Nithi County has been hailed by area residents as well as religious leaders as a positive development that will help contain rising crime.
The residents said security personnel posted to the area will now be able to rein on lawlessness that include rampant selling and consumption of illicit liquor and widespread peddling and use of drugs, especially cannabis sativa (bhang).
They said that Mitheru Market had been turned into a haven of lawlessness because it lacked adequate security patrol or a police station nearby, expressing sigh of relief that crime in the area would be a thing of the past now that law enforcement officers have been sent.
Over the weekend, the newly posted Assistant County Commissioner (ACC), Dickson Simiyu, told worshippers at the PCEA Kiini Church, during the official opening of a Parish Office that so far 12 police officers have been posted to Mitheru to carry-out patrols.
He cautioned bar owners to operate only during stipulated hours, adding that anyone flouting liqour licensing regulations would have their licences cancelled.
“Youth who have made it a habit of getting drunk and then singing circumcision songs in the middle of the night thereby causing unnecessary disturbances, better behave well or we shall have no alternative but to arrest and charge them in court,” Mr. Simiyu warned.
The local Parish Minister, Rev.Douglas Muchina, thanked the Government for posting an Assistant County Commissioner and opening the police post, saying Mitheru had developed a reputation of lawlessness.
He called on parents to enroll their youth who had completed form-four in technical trainning institutions that had been started in the area or make sure that they were gainfully occupied.
Last week, while on working duty of the area, the Sub-county Police Commander, Johnstone Kabucia, called on residents to cooperate with police officers and to give them usefully information that could help eradicate crime.
By Kenneth Marangu
