House passes motion on askaris’ training
The County Assembly has unanimously passed a motion for retraining of county askaris.
The inspectorate officers, popularly known as ‘kanju’, are notorious for using violence when making arrests with some of the County Assembly Members having fallen victim to the askaris on the city streets.
“Our city askaris don’t even know the law. A member of this House was assaulted and his leg broken, by a group of them” said Majority Whip David Mberia.
Alleged assault
This was in reference to an alleged assault on Kabiro Ward representative Clarence Munga recently. Several Ward representatives have in the past also complained of mistreatment in the hands of the askaris.
Introducing the motion, Osman Adow, said the askaris were exposing the county to possible court fines should those harassed decide to sue.
“The enforcement of city by-laws most often borders on the illegal and unconstitutional, characterised by arbitrary arrests and harassment,” Adow said.
The MCAs also called on the vetting of the Inspectorate’s top commanders as is happening with the police service.
“We’d like all the top commanders to be vetted by this House and those not found fit to be sent home,” said Mr Mberia. Some of the MCAs pointed out that it was wrong for the askaris to harass traders.