Village committees have been established to help stem runaway insecurity in Maragua.
Deputy county commissioner Gitonga Murungi said their objective is to find the root cause of the high crime rate and curb it.
Last week, residents held a baraza to address the ills, as the subcounty has been rocked by cases of murder, sodomy, robberies and petty theft since October.
These incidents have left residents living in fear, even as they accuse security officers of laxity. But the DCC pointed out that the issues being faced are social and would be better addressed if families are engaged.
“We want to be able to sit at the homesteads level, close to the families, so we can discuss the matters at a closer range. Our plan is to come up with something that can be depended on even in future,” he said.
The 103 villages in Maragua division, which has been the worst hit, will be collapsed into six groups. “Unless we do that, we will continue having cases of murders and violence. We want them to tell us what they think is contributing to the crime,” Murungi said on Tuesday.
This was after three women were arrested on Monday evening and held at Maragua police station cell before being released hours later.
The women claimed they were accused of talking to journalists about crime incidents and calling for the transfer of security agents.
Two weeks ago, a group of people visited a scene where an unidentified man was found murdered and his body dumped along the Maragua-Murang’a road.
The three women were part of the group. In interviews with journalists, the women detailed several cases of crime reported in the area, including the murder of a three-year-old girl who was defiled, murdered and her body dumped in a swamp just days before.
Lucy Njoki, a greengrocer, said a police officer visited her stall at Maragua market on Monday and told her she was being sought.
Moments later, officers accompanied by local administrators came to her stall. After questioning, she was whisked away to Maragua police station. Two other women were also held. But the DCC said the women had been summoned to shed light on the cases they spoke about.
“We respect the freedom of speech. The three ladies were invited to the police station to substantiate things that they had said to the media,” Murungi said.
He did not explain why their fingerprints were taken or why they
were held in a cell.
