Manhunt on for police officer who shot his boss dead

A police officer shot dead his boss before injuring his two colleagues in a confrontation at the Makueni police station.

Constable Friday Barasa is on the run after the Wednesday evening incident in which he shot dead the local deputy Officer Commanding Station (OCS) Inspector Dennis Wanjala and injured two other officers.

His seniors said he is armed with an AK47 rifle, which he used to commit the crime. It is not clear what prompted the confrontation.

Police said Barasa had been deployed to the report office on Wednesday before he became uneasy saying he was going to kill someone.

One of his colleagues overheard him say so and informed other officers at the station. After the deputy OCS was informed of the incident, he and two constables went to the report office to establish why Barasa was swearing he would kill.

“Upon seeing the officers, Barasa opened fire killing the OCS and injured two other officers. He later escaped with his rifle,” said a senior officer in the area.

A manhunt was immediately launched on the officer who is still armed and in uniform. The two injured officers are nursing bullet wounds after he shot one in the shoulder and the other in the left leg. The body of deceased Inspector was removed to the Makueni Referral Hospital mortuary.

This is the latest incident involving police officers in which they have either killed colleagues or commit suicide.

On December 16, a police officer committed suicide in his house in Nairobi’s Ruaraka area over what his colleagues termed as a fallout with his girlfriend.

Constable Fredrick Owuor of General Service Unit headquarters is said to have hanged himself using a rope in his house within the unit quarters after leaving a note indicating the reasons for the incident. His body was discovered long after the incident had happened.

Cases of suicide in the service are on the rise with little action to slow them. More than 20 officers have committed suicide in separate incidents this year alone. Cases of police shooting their colleagues and friends dead before killing themselves are also on the rise.

Police officers’ conduct with their family, their relationship with their colleagues and seniors among other issues have been identified as some of the causes of such incidents.

In 2016, Inspector General Joseph Boinnet received a report on the causes of shootings by police officers targeting their colleagues. The probe was done by a team of officers led by Aggrey Adoli with a view to establishing the causes and also remedial actions.

READ: How M-Shwari plunged customers into agony

The report was not made public. But those who saw it say the report established that the actions were caused by lack of psychological counseling, lack of passion to serve in the service, unprofessional leadership where some managers are not skilled in human resource management leading to nepotism, tribalism and favouritism.

Poor housing condition, lack of morale and uncalled for transfers were also found to be the lead to the deaths in the service.