Police issue tough rules to Coast hoteliers

 

Coast Police boss Aggrey Adoli (left) welcomes Inspector General David Kimaiyo (right) for a meeting with Coast police chiefs last year. Photo/FILE  NATION MEDIA GROUP

In Summary

• The directive by Coast regional police coordinator Aggrey Adoli is aimed at helping security agencies deal with terror suspects believed to be hiding in the region.
• He asked players in the hospitality industry to ensure they get important documents from their clients so as to assist police stamp out terrorism.

By WINNIE ATIENO

Hoteliers at the Coast have been ordered to take photographs, travel documents and signatures of their clients in an a bid to help police arrest terror suspects.

The directive by Coast regional police coordinator Aggrey Adoli is aimed at helping security agencies deal with terror suspects believed to be hiding in the region.

Mr Adoli gave the directive on Monday after chairing a closed-door meeting with top regional security officers and tourism stakeholders at the provincial police headquarters in Mombasa.

He asked players in the hospitality industry to ensure they get important documents from their clients so as to assist police stamp out terrorism.

“The detractors of our economy are amidst us, we should root them out. We have criminals on our radar, including terrorists,” he said.

MAINTAIN SECURITY

Addressing journalists after the meeting, Mr Adoli said officers who were deployed during the March 4 General Election are still in the region to maintain security.

“We have closed all the loopholes in Coast and it is being manned 24 hours by marine and Kenya navy officers who are also patrolling in the waters. Many have been arrested while attempting to enter into the country through the waters,” he said.

He said border points at Kiunga, Boni Forest and in South Coast had also been sealed.

Mr Adoli appealed to the business community to ensure their CCTV cameras are working and vowed to crack down on private security firms employing people without training.

PROFILING LANDLORDS

He noted that Mombasa had come up with a modality of profiling landlords and their tenants to avert harbouring criminals and appealed to other counties to follow suit.

The police chief further ordered owners of vehicles with tinted windows to do away with them, saying it is a traffic offence.

Mombasa County Criminal Investigations police boss Henry Ondiek said hoteliers must be sensitised due to security challenges posed by foreigners.

He called on private guards to thoroughly screen and frisk people and vehicles entering business premises.

Mombasa police commander Robert Kitur appealed to the public volunteer information to police on people they suspect to be criminals.

The statement by coast police boss comes just few days after terror suspects attacked Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, killing 67 people and injuring 175 others.