Kisii Governor James Ongwae has faulted the dissolution of community policing committees by County Commissioner Chege Mwangi terming the move untimely following the security challenges posed during the festive season.
Ongwae opined the dissolution of the committees was ill-advised and the county commissioner would have postponed the move until the end of the festive season to allow the existing community policing committees to continue beefing up security in the area before the re-constitution of new teams.
He spoke at Kisii Culture Hall on Monday evening after meeting members of the community policing committees whose terms of office had been terminated by Mwangi to pave way for elections of new committees across the county.
The governor said the move was ill-timed and should have been suspended to allow for consultations between the county government and the national government security agencies on the ground to agree on the next plan of action.
"As a county government, we support the work of the community policing committees in enhancing security in our communities and having them disbanded at this critical stage especially during this festive season was untimely and ill-advised since this is the time when their services come in handy to address issues of insecurity and crime across the county," stated the county boss.
Ongwae commended the community policing initiative for enhancing security at communities and called on the strengthening of the policing groups' capacity to enhance fight against crime in the region.