Security agencies in Kisumu city have rolled out an operation to curb runaway insecurity in the area.
Acting County Commissioner (CC) Hussein Alassow Hussein said the joint operation involving police officers and members of the Nyumba Kumi initiative was in force to round up criminal gangs terrorizing area residents.
He said the gangs, which use crude weapons to attack and rob innocent members of the public, were using boda boda as a getaway means of transport, adding that the operation would be extended to the sector to weed out the criminals.
Hussein said the lakeside city had remained calm and peaceful during and after the 2022 general elections, adding that isolated cases were slowly eroding the image.
The county security team, he added, has called for a meeting with boda boda operators and members of the jua kali sector in a bid to smoke out criminals.
Speaking at the Jomo Kenyatta Sports Grounds complex in Kisumu during Madaraka Day celebrations, Hussein cautioned boda boda operators against colluding with criminals, adding that every effort shall be made to bring those involved to book.
The gang, he added, was recently involved in looting and destruction of property during the anti-government protests, adding that security officers were on high alert and would soon close in on them.
“I want to assure all the investors that every effort has been made to secure their businesses. We will not allow criminals to take advantage of protests to loot and destroy property,” he said.
Hussein further decried the rising number of street children in Kisumu, calling on all stakeholders to come up with modalities to address the issue. Most of them, he added, have turned into criminals, posing a danger to the security of the city.
His office, he added, has called for a meeting next week to see how best the children can be rehabilitated and reintegrated back into their families.
He asked the county government to relocate all the dumping sites within the Central Business District (CBD), which act as breeding grounds for the street children.
Kisumu Acting City Manager Abala Wanga called for a speedy resolution of the street child menace, which he blamed for the rising insecurity in the area.
“Some of them are no longer children; they have grown up and turned into criminals who are now attacking innocent residents,” he said.
He said most of the children were not from Kisumu, adding that his office was planning to round them up and ferry them back to their home counties if an urgent solution was not found.
To tame the wave of insecurity, Wanga said the city management has banned boda boda from operating within the leafy Milimani estate, where some of the mugging cases have been reported.
Boda boda operators who wish to do business in the area, he said, must register with taxi mobile phone applications so that they only pick up and drop off passengers on request.
By Chris Mahandara
