President William Ruto has revealed why he disbanded the Special Service Unit.
Speaking on Sunday October 16 in Kericho County the Head of State revealed that he ordered for the disbandment of the unit in a move to address extrajudicial killings that endangered the relationship between law enforcers and Kenyans.
President Ruto argued that the unit endangered the lives of Kenyans through killings and hence it was time to reorganize the force to protect the welfare of the public.
“They had five years which they used to run down the country in which insecurity had hit unimaginable levels with bodies were found killed in river Yala. The police had deviated from the role of protecting Kenyans to killing them.That is why I gave an order that the SSU of the police be disbanded because it was killing Kenyans anyhow,” Ruto stated.
Ruto’s explanation comes hours after Acting Inspector General of the Police Noor Gabow announced that the unit has been disbanded.
“The DCI Special Service Unit (SSU) has been disbanded with immediate effect. All officers serving in the disbanded unit have been recalled to DCI Headquarters for further instructions,” the statement read in part.
The SSU was conceived by former DCI director George Kinoti in 2019 after he ordered the dissolution of the Flying squad along with the Sting Squad that dealt with domestic crime.
The two elite units were attached to the DCI’s Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau (CRIB) for intelligence-driven operations, along with other units such as Cybercrime, Ballistics, Scenes of Crime, Principal Crime Registrar, Crime Intelligence Unit, Homicide, (DNA, Toxicological, Chemistry, and Biology Lab Units), all based at the agency’s forensic laboratory.
The units worked closely with other State Security Agencies to share intelligence and to respond to criminal emergencies across the nation.
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