BY SAM ALFAN.
Outgoing Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti has enumerated his successes at Mazingira House since he took over as the Director General four years ago.
In his farewell message, Kinoti said he embarked on a process of transforming the DCI Kenya into a professional investigative body comparable to any established investigative agency across the world.
In order to achieve this, Kinoti reckoned that his office worked very closely with the executive and legislative arms of government that fully supported the Directorate.
The former DCI boss said his team also reached out to local partners in public, private sector and foreign missions that became DCI biggest support system in professionalizing the Directorate to a world-class investigative body.
Kinoti said through this deliberate effort, over 400 detectives received specialized training in diverse fields in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, China, India, Russia and South Africa among other countries, which are among the best in the world in criminal investigations.
He said in one of such high profile collaboration, the US Department of state and Federal Bureau of Investigations partnered in creating the first joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) outside of the US.
“Under prestigious programme, 42 detectives drawn from the Anti-terrorism police unit underwent a 12-week counterterrorism training at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, where I also joined the detectives to inspire them and make Kenya proud,” he said.
He pointed out that the establishment of the joint terrorism task force began after the al-Shabaab terrorist attack DusitD2 Hotel after it was established that there was need for a multi-agency counterterrorism investigative force in the country.
“As a result, there has been a decrease in the number of reported terrorism related cases in the country,” said Kinoti.
He revealed that, those that have been reported have been dealt with expeditiously, resulting to successful conviction of terror suspects, the recent being the life sentence handed down to Ibrahim Rabow, who was one of the main suspects behind the abduction of Cuban doctors in Mandera County three years ago.
“Today, DCI boasts of one of the best counterterrorism tactical units in the region and across all the security services of our country. The emergency Response Team (ERT) based at DCI-Anti Terrorism police Unit (ATPU) has been tried, tested and proven to be the most efficient, responsive and resilient among all specialized tactical units in the country, thanks to this training,” said the outgoing top sleuth.
United States House Committee on Natural Resources led by the head of delegation Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz), the committee congratulated the former DCI for the Directorates’ concerted efforts in fighting the vice and putting crimes against endangered wildlife species under control.
Further, the committee members expressed their satisfaction in how sleuths from DCI’s Serious Crimes Unit, had handled the recent cases prompting the committee chair to pledge support to the Directorate in fighting similar crimes more effectively.
United States House Committee on Natural Resources led by the head of delegation Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz) with former DCI Kinoti.
Kinoti expressed his appreciation to the committee for its work, adding that its support was welcome as it would go a long way in assisting the Directorate curb the vice which had for a long time bedeviled many countries.
Committee was the last foreign guests to be received by Kinoti before his exit .
