The National Intelligence Service (NIS) had reportedly warned police in Kapenguria that a terrorist cell in the region was planning to launch an attack, but a senior officer within the county failed to take action.
It has also emerged that local police had been asked to keep a close eye on the rogue officer identified as Abdi Hakim Maslah, who ran berserk and shot seven of his colleagues before plunging the station into a 10-hour siege.
Highly-placed sources within the security apparatus who spoke to The Nation revealed that authorities at the station were aware of the close ties between the rogue cop and the suspected terrorist detained at the very police station Maslah was based.
According to security agents from the county, Maslah enjoyed the protection of a senior officer within the county's security command who always frustrated any effort to investigate his links with suspected terrorists.
Earlier on, the rogue officer had supposedly requested to quit the police force hardly a year after graduating from the Kiganjo Police Training College but his request was turned down, apparently because of the fear that he would flee to join Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia.
Maslah was gunned down by marksmen from the Ruiru-based Recce squad, who had been flown in to subdue him hours into the siege.
A message obtained from the rogue cop's phone that was ostensibly sent while he was holed up at the station during the siege read, “Now the Kaffir (non-believers) lost at least six vehicles and many of their soldiers. Also freed is a brother detained for suspected terrorism”.
It has further been revealed that Maslah was among five other officers who were to be on duty on Wednesday night, but he left at 11p.m. without the permission of the station boss, raising questions as to why no disciplinary action was taken against him.
It is believed he was on a mission to rescue his friend, identified as Omar Eumond, a teacher at Victoria Primary School in Kacheliba who was held at the police station.