NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 16 – Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has hit out at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) accusing them of harassing county bosses.
Speaking on Thursday in Mombasa County where he presided over the induction of governors, Gachagua asked the DCI not to harass the county chiefs, pointing out that due to the embarrassment they suffer, the governors are unable to perform their constitutional mandate.
He added that the DCI has been used to frustrate elected officials particularly governors, in the name of fighting corruption.
“I want to assure you, we are aware of the harassment and intimidation governors have gone through by state agencies. The level of extortion by detectives pretending to be fighting graft whereas they were just extorting money from governors and officials is a thing of the past,” he stated.
This comes barely three days after the inauguration ceremony in Kasarani.
“We have told DCI to go back to Kiambu road and wait for crimes to be reported there. They have no business in government offices hovering all over and creating a toxic environment for service delivery,” he said. “We cannot have detectives in government offices because they poison the atmosphere and environment for civil servants to deliver.”
The DP further talked about the issue of junior officers being sent to interrogate the county governors and urged that a different approach be taken.
“We are going to tell our security officers that they cannot send a junior police officer to go and harass and interrogate an elected governor. If there is an issue that needs to be addressed as it should be, we are not saying that we don’t fight graft, but let us be decent people. Let us have respect for elected leaders.”
“Let the head of that particular organization write a letter to the governor himself and not delegate to some junior officers to address a sitting governor because that is not right. And those are the things that we are going to do to restore the dignity of our leaders to enable them perform.”
Gachagua, who has some time back been interrogated by the DCI, called out on what he terms as humiliation from the officers.
“Because when you embarrass an elected leader in front of their juniors, and you go away how do you expect him to perform the following day?”
