Kinoti dismisses reports that police hire guns out to criminals
Director of Criminal Investigations(DCI) boss George Kinoti has today dismissed reports that the police hire guns out to criminals.
This is after a documentary was aired on Citizen TV on April 18,2021 christened “Guns Galore” which showed how it is very easy to access everything connected to the police.
Kinoti said that that the firearms and handcuffs could have come from them but they could have been given an opportunity to investigate to find out which station and security agency they came from.
“… and if we collaborated together, it would have been a well done job. We maintain records of firearms in the master ledger. All firearms issued to police stations are in permanent records at stations and headquarters,”
According to Kinoti, the moment a police officer gets a firearm, details are recorded in the arms movement book until returned.
He further said that the allegations are extremely serious and they shall be asking the editorial director, and other relevant reporters to come and give them more insights to this report in pursuit of criminals harbouring the weapons.
“The report seemed to be a malicious attempt to discredit the National Police Service; we can only conclude that it was aimed at creating public pandemonium over the management of the security sector,” he said.
Kinoti said an investigation into the matter would be fit only if the media house included the police in the expose.
“I don’t know why I was not approached to collaborate on the expose’. We never refused to be embedded in your operations. Put us on board, up to now we have no idea of these crimes,” he said.
He claimed that he had never seen that pistol (named brown on the expose) issued to the police force.
“I am happy the firearms were recovered, my issue is the documentation that it came from police, that is false information. Firearms are recovered through informers,” he said.
Kinoti said they have officials who track police firearms day and night.
“If a firearm is missing, we have mechanisms to track this. The statement of the reporter who did all this work; there is nowhere he is saying that his weapons belong to the police,” he said.
On police uniforms, he said that uniforms are police issues, and the moment one retires, they hand over their kits.
“If not returned, investigation is opened. There is accountability in the force,” he said.
He also called upon Kenyans to help them ensure that these firearms are completely eliminated from the wrong hands.
“AK47 is a prohibited firearm and should not be with civilians. Those who had possession of these firearms are the ones who know where they came from,” he said.
