The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) has directed the Internal Affairs Unit (AIU) to provide an update on an ongoing probe against Officer Commanding Eldoret Police Station (OCS).
The Eldoret OCS is being investigated over claims of inaction that were raised by North Rift Muslim youth leader Jamal Diriwo Omari.
Omari wrote a complaint to IPOA early this year over the failure of the Eldoret police station officers to act on threats to his life.
He has reported the threats at least three times, but no action has ever been taken against the accused.
Following the complaint, IPOA directed AIU to handle the matter in two letters sent in March and August 2022.
“Your letters dated 1st April 2022 and 27th October 2022 informed the Authority that the regional police commander Rift Valley was tasked to conduct an investigation and to file a report on or before 1st November 2022. The same has not been adhered to,” IPOA notes, in a letter to AIU dated December 2, 2022, that was seen by Uasin Gishu News.
Update on inquiry
The authority in the letter now wants an update from AIU on the matter as soon as possible so that further action can be taken.
“In the circumstances, you are required to furnish us with an update of your inquiry into this matter within 7 days of the date hereof,” noted IPOA in the letter signed by Annastacia Musyoka, on behalf of the authority’s Chief Executive Officer.
The North Rift Muslim youth leader recently lamented that the failure of the police to act on threats to his life had left him living in fear.
He also revealed that with the accused still walking scot-free, he had been forced to close down his herbal clinic which was his only source of income.
“I am living in my own country as a refugee. I’m a doctor but because of these threats, my business has been closed down. I had medicine worth over Ksh800,000, all of which have now expired,” Omari told journalists last week.
The threats, the Muslim youth leader claims, are related to a case before the court in which he is seeking information regarding parcels of land belonging to the Eldoret Muslim Association.
He believes some of the lands whose value runs into billions of shillings have been irregularly awarded to private individuals.
