Why cops are not eager to engage football hooligans

   Teargas used to dispatch fans during the Charity Cup     Photo: Courtesy

Police apathy, money wrangles and corruption is making it difficult to tame football hooliganism.

In fact, the men in blue often ‘hold their fire’ because of unpaid allowances, The Nairobian has established.

“We don’t care about what happens in the stadium. Our work is to watch football like any other fan, and where necessary use force in dispersing crowds,” a disgruntled police officer who has been discharging duty at Nyayo Stadium, City and Kasarani Stadia for over two years says.

This attitude, we learnt, stems from shocking ordeals some of city cops go through in the stands during football matches.

“Do you think we are not human?  We put our lives on the line every weekend fending off marauding youth, who have no respect for law enforcers, yet you journalists just cover the scores. Do you ever bother about our welfare?” posed the officer.

“We have not heard from the Charity Cup officials even after some of us were injured during the chaos between Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards fans. Who even cares about our boss who left Nyayo Stadium with a serious head injury?”

The young constable was referring to Lang’ata OCPD Titus Yoma who was seriously injured when rampaging rival Gor and AFC fans had to be routed by police on Sunday, February 2, 2014, at Nyayo National Stadium.

Over the years, Ingwe and K’Ogalo fans have always clashed. Gor boss Ambrose Rachier in a past interview with The Standard outlined plans to introduce ‘South American Stadia buffer zone rule’ during all matches involving the two perennial bitter rivals.

Racheir explained: “In that buffer zone, we shall create space between the two rival fans with the use of General Service Unit Police who will cordon off an entire area that separates the fans both at the VIP and the terraces.”

Plans to introduce professionally trained stadium stewards whose role will be to control and monitor the crowds have also been mentioned in the past, amid complains that police officers sent to keep the peace, spend time watching games instead of keeping an eye on the crowd.

Bhang possession is illegal

And such is the madness in stadiums that it is not uncommon for a bhang smoker to light his ‘holy herb’ after politely asking a cop for a matchbox!

Bhang possession is illegal and attracts a 14-year jail term in Kenyan slammer.

Fans who are high on bhang have nothing to lose when they’re marshalled to ‘duty’ in case of what is perceived to be a ref’s wanting call during a game with high stakes.

But according to our sources, while every club spends between Sh50,000 and Sh200,000 on police officers– depending on the magnitude of the match– half the time, the cops walk home empty handed despite money being handed to police bosses after each match.

A police officer who declined to be named says, “We are normally just summoned to work, remember when duty calls you don’t question. Previously, we could get at times between Sh200 to Sh500. But lately it is a case of ‘do not ask do not tell’.” 

Another officer who also lamented over inadequate protective wear supported his colleague, adding, “We have friends and relatives who keep us posted on how much our bosses are paid for our services, but why on earth would they keep all the money for themselves, or in some cases share it out unfairly?” Disquiet among police officers charged with maintaining security during soccer matches cast a dark shadow on the recent proposal to form a special anti-hooliganism police unit.

Gatiria Mboroki, the spokesperson for Kenya Police Service said, “I know the law requires that if you come and request for police hire, there’s a provision on the amount which should be paid and that money is not paid to an individual police officer but it goes to an account known as ‘appropriation in aid.’ Every official must ensure that they get a receipt for every payments made.”

But club officials who spoke to The Nairobian said that in all previous payments they have never received any receipts from the top cops.

Then there are claims that when club officials agree with top cops on the number of officers to be deployed in a given match, the clubs end up being shortchanged.

“There are instances during pre-match meetings when we’ve agreed on let’s say 300 cops only to see approximately 100 officers only, said our source from one of KPL clubs.

People who are being raped

 But on such claims of ‘dishonesty’ Mboroki says: “Imagine asking for 300 police officers to come and cover a match yet we have other duties? We have people who are being robbed; we have people who are being raped, traffic jam in towns. Where are we going to get those 300 police officers to come and cover your match?”

He poses again: “Does it mean that all the other duties that we are supposed to respond to are going to stand still until your match is over?”

Mboroki argues that soccer officials should be “realistic, we are only 40, 000 in the country it is upon the organization and entire football fraternity to come out strongly to help stop hooliganism

Reacting to comments from the cops.

Rachier, while speaking at the opening ceremony of a two day safety and security workshop at the Kenya School of Government in conjunction with United Kingdom’s Security Ground Safety Authority (SGSA), echoed Nyamweya’s sentiments appealing to the government to help set up a special anti-hooliganism police unit, the way it has helped set up other special units to deal with various vices.

“We have tourist police and diplomatic police. We could set a similar one to deal with hooliganism. The federations and clubs have no capacity to stamp out hooliganism, and this is one crime that should be dealt with by the government through the police force.”