They wrote, “Nero fiddled while Rome burned,” a legend that has been used to describe someone who engages in trivial activities during a crisis.
As an alarming crime wave rises in Kenya, two prominent individuals who sit in critical positions of upholding national internal security have borrowed a script from Nero’s playbook – fiddling.
Kenyans online have noted that Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen and his Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo have remained tight-lipped on the spate of armed robberies and goon deployment in the country over the last few months.
On June 7, six suspects on three motorcycles robbed a family at gunpoint outside a popular car bazaar, within Runda in Nairobi.
This was just part of a 48-hour crime alarm as three daring robberies rocked the Westlands and Gigiri sub-counties, showing an alarming pattern of operation.
The gangs operated on motorbikes and wreaked terror on citizens residing in the aforementioned areas.
Five days later, a group of armed men invaded All Saints’ Cathedral, a move harshly criticised by the Clergy and Kenyans in general.
One of the men revealed to Citizen TV that they were allegedly financed by a Nairobi Member of Parliament and executed the invasion with the support of plainclothes police officers.
Another armed robbery was reported at a restaurant on July 4 as two gun-wielding robbers attacked customers at a restaurant in Westlands, stealing their valuables.
Elsewhere, a group of hired youths were allegedly hired to attack the Linda Mwananchi faction during their Kisii tour on July 3 in the full presence of heavily armed police officers.
CS Murkomen and PS Omollo have not pronounced themselves on the matter as Kenyans continue to fall victim to the vices of the gangs, and instead have opted to engage in trifling politics.
CS Murkomen has been nibbling on a bone he has picked with former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua over being behind chaos rumoured to be sponsored in the Ol-Kalou by-elections slated for July 16.
He has even announced that monitoring Gachagua’s activities will be his primary focus until the 2027 General Election.
“Rigathi Gachagua, my business now until Kenya crosses 2027 safely is to monitor your activities in the Republic of Kenya. Hiyo kazi nitafanya usiku na mchana, you’re my single most point of focus because of the threat you’re posing as the father of violence,” Murkomen stated during a public address in Elgeyo-Marakwet County on July 4.
Murkomen’s recent effort to crack down on crime saw him spearhead the establishment of the Nairobi Metropolitan Police Unit (NMPU), a highly specialised division under the National Police Service designed to curb urban crime, protect businesses, and improve emergency response times.
Its operations have, however, not publicly taken effect.
Meanwhile, PS Omollo has become a habitual adulator of President William Ruto’s administration’s projects.
He has flooded his social media pages with posts praising government projects under the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), recently sharing images of the construction of the Rironi–Nakuru–Mau Summit Highway.
“More than 60% of Nairobi residents have already registered with the Social Health Authority (SHA). We continue to encourage those who are yet to register, particularly women, to enrol and become part of the Government’s healthcare transformation agenda,” he wrote in another post.
Police action has also been thrown under scrutiny, as the response to insecurity incidents has been sluggish, raising questions on their goodwill to help combat crime in the country, as critics opine that they are supporting the gangs.
Censures have revolved around why the government can easily appropriate its security apparatus to tame protesters when they take to the streets, when it fails to nab the marauding gangs owing to its highly capable intelligence surveillance.
Kenyans are now questioning the duo’s competence on why they are not taking swift action on the matter, one that threatens state security and business operations.
