Picture this… a police station in Kirinyaga County was constructed in 2008, at the height of the outlawed Mungiki sect insurgency in Mt Kenya region.

This police station was supposed to help the locals in curbing the marauding Mungiki sect members, and help restore peace within the community. The status quo that was eventually restored.

However, in 2018, the then President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Government announced an new structure in the National Police Service, changes that saw the Kenya Police Service (KPS) and Administration Police (AP) collapsed into one unit.

Consequently, officers domiciled in this police station were transferred, and since then, the facility has remained vacant, deserted with no officers.

This is what residents of Muragara Village in Ndia Constituency are grappling with. The residents are now calling upon the Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja to order the re-deployment of police officers to the Muragara Police Station.

According to Nyawira Maina, a resident, the government has been promising the community of posting officers at the police station, but nothing has changed. Nyawira says that they have had to grapple with the rising cases of insecurity including muggings and animal theft, ruing that a fully-operational police station could have come in handy.

“Security iko chini sana huku. Last week mifugo waliibiwa pamoja na mbolea. Tutafurahi sana tukiletewa polisi katika station hii. Sahi lazima twende Kabugi Police Station, which is 5km from hapa,” Nyawira says.

Currently, the nearest station to the village is Kabonge Police Station, which is five kilometres away.

“Hapa kwetu tuna Chief na tunamheshimu. Lakini mahali kuna chief na hakuna askari, ni nini inaendelea? Chief anafaa awe na askari ili apate nguvu ya kufanya kazi,” Muthoni, another resident, lamented.