The Longonot police post in Naivasha has been burned down. The Friday night fire consumed six guns, close to 400 rounds of ammunition and communication equipment. The fire spread to three nearby wooden houses, burning them to the ground though no one was injured.
The police post is located along the Naivasha-Mai Mahiu road. The fire caused panic as tens of armed officers were sent to secure the police post. Senior security officers toured the scene as they sought ways of assisting the affected officers and erecting a new police post.
Luckily no one was in the police cells with only two officers manning the post that serves the nearby Longonot town and nearby villages. Witnesses who spoke to the press pointed to an electric fault for the inferno, adding that lack of a fire engine and water had complicated the issue.
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Mr Samuel Gikonyo told Standard that the fire started after midnight and gutted down the wooden police post in less than thirty minutes. Gikonyo said that heavy winds and lack of water compounded the situation, making it hard to contain the fire. “We had been experiencing power outages around the town on several occasions and we suspect that this was the cause of the fire,” he said.
A police source confirmed that six G3 rifles, communication equipment and a total of 371 rounds of ammunition and been destroyed.
Currently, operations at the police post have been paralysed, with plans under way to set up a new one.
Naivasha sub-county commissioner Isaac Masinde confirmed the incident and added that preliminary investigations pointed to an electric fault. Mr Masinde said despite the incident, the police post would continue to operate as they sought ways of rebuilding it. “Various government property including guns and communication gadgets were destroyed during the midnight incident,” he said.
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