150,000 Officers To Be Deployed During August 9 Polls As A ‘Sky Squad’ Put On Standby

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 22- Some 150,000 officers will be deployed across the country during the August 9 polls, to ensure a safe environment as Kenyans cast their votes.

They will be placed under 1,115 Command level officers.

Of those, the police headquarters on Friday revealed will be officers drawn from the Kenya Wildlife Service, the National Youth Service, Kenya Prisons Service, and the Kenya Forest Service.

This comes at a period when intelligence reports have revealed that they were fears of politically linked criminal gangs being used to cause mayhem during elections.

Already the National Cohesion and Integration Commission has mapped out hotspots areas and singled out more than 20 Counties prone to violence.

On Thursday, Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiangi said more police officers will be deployed in areas with a high likelihood of experiencing gangs driven violence and more at the Coast region.

To compliment the efforts of the 150,000 officers, Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai said, “there’s a provision of five Air set in strategic locations to provide logistical air support when and where required throughout the electioneering period.”

Mutyambai who addressed journalists on Friday urged Kenyans to remain calm as the excercise their civic duty.

“I urge all Kenyans to remain peaceful and law-abiding during this period of electioneering, leading up to the General Election and beyond,” the police boss said.

He revealed that the service has already finalized the Election Security Plan.

The plan, he said, will provide critical input to operation orders and deployment plans by respective commands for the General election.

“We have also established a National Election Security Command which is manned on a 24-hour basis and equipped to handle all situational analysis related to election security,” he said.

“It can be reached at Toll-free on 0779 756 616, 0779 756 615, 0779 756 617 and 0779 756 606.”

NPS said it has also mapped out all emergency and rescue equipment, both private and public owned, across the country in case a need arises.

All the officers involved in the exercise have been trained on electoral security.

He disclosed that the election security secretariat is conducting threat and risk analysis to identify threats to national security which in turn will inform resource deployment in real-time.

“Such emerging threats shall be tackled promptly. I, therefore, would like to warn those hell-bent upon acts of criminality and lawlessness to desist,” he said.