Cases of When the Biblical King David saw the wife to Uriah bathing and lusted for her, he used his powers as ‘Commander in Chief’ to order the soldier to be placed at the frontline where the battle was hot, ordered his co-fighters to retreat from him so that the enemy would have an easy target. He then went ahead and inherited Bathsheba (Uriah’s wife).
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Cases of senior uniformed officers setting up their juniors in the line of duty to get time with the juniors’ wives or girlfriends is therefore not a very new thing, it seems. Romance within the forces also seems to come with a potent mix of danger and risk, with cases of disagreements taking a fatal twist in some instances
A few weeks ago, a Presidential Escort Unit officer daringly shot his girlfriend in Nairobi to death and later turned the gun and shot himself. He died few days later while getting treatment. According to the lady’s mother, the officer had been trying to convince the girl to marry him in vain.
The incident caused uproar in the public domain, with many calling out on the need to provide guidance and counselling services to the officers of the disciplined force. Some of the factors that were attributed to these killings of love gone sour are; depression, demoralisation in work place, poor pay and deplorable living conditions.
“In light of all these challenges, any slight provocation can bring far reaching consequences,” says one Philip Kimaya, while trying to piece together the all familiar menace. Seeing that this was degenerating into a major problem in the service, a probe team led by Aggrey Adoli did a report with the view of establishing the causes and possible remedies.
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In neighbouring Uganda Kakira district police head Peter Twala sent his junior Sylvester Kaziba on a night assignment in the farthest corner of the district as he remained in his station’s barrack that housed a police station and officers’ quarters.
He then went to an isolated barrack’s bathroom where he had organised a date with Kaziba’s wife. Lucky enough he was unmasked in the act by families that lived in the barrack who threatened to lynch him had he not fled to his house.
Twala was later arrested from his house in Kakira Police Barracks by Kiira regional police commander, Godfrey Matte.
He had apparently locked himself in his house to escape the wrath of residents and the families of other police officers in the same barracks.
Back in 2007, a newly-elected Kenyan MP, David Kimutai Too, was shot dead by a police officer in what was reported to be a love triangle, with the officer said to have trailed the couple before confronting them where all hell broke loose. The woman at the centre of the love was also a police officer.
Junior officers are known to take orders from their seniors, in the course of their duty as well as even doing the bidding for their bosses. The recent police vetting exercise unearthed damning revelations, where junior traffic officers collect bribes, after which a fraction of it goes to their bosses.
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The same also applies to those officers who tend to complicate matters of romance. To keep off such inconveniencing juniors, they are reportedly dispatched to far flung areas to pave way for the scheming superiors.
A young officer based along Thika area and who spoke on condition of anonymity says that, their worst nightmare is working under a boss who manipulates their juniors or uses their power to prey on their girlfriends.
“Most officers are employed when they are in their early twenties. At that point some would want to spend some years dating. I know of bosses who can’t help salivating at your girl when they see you with one around. Just to prove that they are the boss, some push the joke far by seducing girlfriend just to hurt you. Others are just trying to catch up with what they didn’t do in their youth by getting naughty,” says the officer.
Unfortunate incidences whereby some officers take the lives of civilian after their love liaison goes awry are also not unheard of. This recent cases of wanton shootings as a result of love triangle among such officers have even scared some single ladies who are now getting jittery about the idea of dating an officer.
They claim that matters can take a dangerous turn where a breakup is the only way out or when cheating is involved.
Ruth Nderu, 30, says that the latest incidents have put fear in her and most of her friends lest they get into such situation themselves.
“Personally I am not discriminating against them but I wonder what would happen if you are dating one of am just wondering, with the stories we read in the papers, what would happen in case you date one, you later disagree on some issues and the relationship gets rocky and untenable? It is all too scary to think of,” she says.
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However a South Rift based officer in the rank of Sergeant disagrees with the notion and says that the cases are often blown out of proportion and that a few rogue elements and isolated incidents cannot be used to generally condemn the entire service.
“In as much as I don’t condone extreme or irrational means to solve problems, some of us chose to get married earlier and left our spouses at home. When you truly love you wife you won’t have time to stray out for extra-marital flings,” he says.
Another officer quips that sometimes deals gone sour or personal differences between officers can spill to the extent where their innocent lovers get caught in the fray. Some officers according to him have had to bear the brunt of being termed as corrupt, under-educated or even looked down upon by their bosses or those they are assigned to serve.
“As such they can vent all these collective anger on innocent party who could even be a lover,” he says.
He adds that cases of police officers moonlighting aren’t strange. The fact that some of these officers do not live with their families means that these big-shots can do some hanky-panky often with the women who come to visit the living quarters.
“After getting money some officers use it to entertain girls or intimidate their greenhorn juniors unaware of similar deals of supplementing their income,” he says.
In a situation where a moneyed senior who has the privilege of calling shots around thanks to power and some money from a side-hustle, it can lead to bad blood. Officers, who live in work stations with girlfriends or wives, have to do anything to keep them against preying eyes of such colleagues or randy seniors. He says the best way to avoid such scenarios, is to keep spouses away from the stations and let them stay at home as that saves them any unnecessary drama.
In light of the need to provide an avenue where officers can get psychological help on how to handle pressures related to job and love life.
