Nairobi – The government is paying particular attention to slums and other areas vulnerable to political violence ahead of the August elections.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said security agencies are constantly monitoring the situation in places prone to lawlessness and crime during the election season.

Speaking at a meeting with Rotary club members in Nairobi on Thursday, Matiang’i revealed that a security surveillance and rapid response strategy specifically designed for informal settlements in Nairobi and other major cities was already in place.

Matiang’i was responding to concerns raised by Rotary Club members about alleged extrajudicial killings and ethnic outbreaks in informal settlements.

“Extrajudicial executions are a policy that has been adopted by some countries, but it is not part of our policing philosophy. We are strictly bound by law to arrest a suspect and bring him to a competent court. Nobody has to worry about informal settlements,” said.

The Interior CS said the country’s policing capacity had grown ten times what it was a decade ago, alongside reforms to align the sector with the needs of citizens.

The CS added that a hotspot policing strategy based on a heatmap showing areas prone to insecurity is also undergoing phased revisions.

“We want to keep improving. So far, nothing can justify raising the alert level in the country. We have a functional early warning system that starts at the community level and a solid structure for sharing information. information, and wananchi themselves have been key cogs in that,” he said.

The SC further noted that the security agencies have been provided with, among other public services, 2,700 recently procured vehicles to bolster the operational and logistical capacity of national government administrators across the country.

“We have established strong inter-agency collaboration and reduced the police to civilian ratio from 1:900 to 1:600. We also have very strong international partners working with us on security management.”

Matiang’i said ongoing security operations and economic responses have reduced the threat of cattle rustling by nearly 75%.

He called for greater cooperation from elected leaders to enlighten and empower young people to discourage them from backward practices.