Police in Ol Joro Orok constituency, Nyandarua County have cited the unwillingness of area residents to volunteer information as stumbling block to their efforts to unravel rising cases of murder in the area.
According to Nyandarua West Deputy County Commissioner, Hezron Nyamberi, a number of reported murder incidents were turning out to be related to either love tringles or family land disputes upon police investigations.
This is as police data indicates that about nine people, most of them women have been murdered in the area in a span of six months.
On April 23, 2020, a 30-year-old woman and her five-year-old daughter succumbed to injuries inflicted by their attacker(s) while undergoing treatment at the Nyahururu County Referral hospital.
Eunice Muthoni Ndung’u and her daughter Linet Njeri died of head injuries after unknown assailant(s) dug through the wall of the house where the two and other children were sleeping at their Chekaleri village home, Ol Joro Orok, and attacked them.
The DCC said preliminary investigations had indicated that the family of the deceased had been involved in a land dispute running for over ten years.
“The family had been involved in a land succession an issue which has been there for some time and other family members have died over the period for what is suspected to be the same land issue,” said the DCC.
“They have never raised the issue with us, the deaths could have been prevented if the same was raised with us earlier,” said the DCC at his Ol Joro Orok town office on Sunday.
Nyamberi noted that the suspects could have been easily arrested and if investigations confirmed the suspicion, he would be prosecuted in court and probably be jailed before more deaths occurred, adding that this would only be possible of family members and society willingly shared information with the police.
“We are planning to travel all-round the Sub County sensitising the society on the need to surrender lead information to the police on reported incidents. This would make police work easier in arresting and prosecuting the culprits,” he added.
According to area Sub-County Police Commander (SCPC), Isaac Ruto, police have invited homicide detectives from Nairobi to help in unraveling a number of murder cases in the area.
“Some of these cases have already been handed over to the homicide detectives in Nairobi, but we are yet to receive the reports on the same.We have also handed files for possible prosecutions of the suspects to ODPP after completion of investigations,” said Mr Ruto.
The SCPC accused residents of also not reporting death threats with the police saying, “Reports of death threats come up when it’s too late to prevent murder.”
The security agencies however said that they have since intensified police patrols in the area and assured residents of heightened security.
By Jesse Mwitwa
Saturday, November 9, 2024
Information For Development
