150,000 officers to secure elections.

                                            Interior PS, Dr.Karanja Kibicho

NAIROBI—The ministry of interor has said there will be atleast 150,000 security officers manning the elections countrywide.

The heads of security speaking during a conference yesterday, claimed this is the safest it has ever been with only three days to the election and they are prepared  for the worst.

“In every county we have a joint multiagency security operation centre, which has one command and is ready to handle the worst case scenario” explained Interior Principal Secretary, Dr. Karanja Kibicho.

Officers from the forest service, wildlife ranger and National Youth Service (NYS) will assist police in ensuring elections run smoothly.

“NYS, KWS, Kenya Forest Service are not police officers and cannot enforce the law but the Inspector General of police by law is allowed to gazette and declare these officers as special police officers for a specific purpose, and in this case is to support IEBC in its conduct of elections.” said the PS.

IG, Joseph Boinnet added that the NYS has been brought on board to assist in boosting numbers and that the tough work is left for the police to do.

“The question regarding NYS, we brought them to support us in boosting numbers and they will be deployed specifically on simple crowd management duty.” said Mr.Boinnet.

The officers say that after voting, Kenyans should maintain a distance 400 metres away from the polling station as demanded by IEBC.