Kenya: 7 officers killed by rogue policeman

By Andrew Wasike

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) - Seven officers were killed in western Kenya on Thursday by a rogue police officer, security sources said.

Earlier reports from the police indicated that the gunman was a primary school teacher, Omar Eumod, a terror suspect being held at the station on suspicion of radicalizing schoolchildren.

After Kenya’s Elite police squad killed the gunman bringing the official death toll to eight, the commandos identified the shooter as a rogue police officer at the Kapenguria police station named Abdi Hakim Maslah, inspector general of police Joseph Boinett told local media.

Omar Eumod, a primary school teacher who was facing terror charges at Kapenguria police station, West Pokot county, was found in his cell by Kenya’s elite police force known as the Recce squad.

The Standard newspaper in Kenya quoted Boinett as saying, "In the ensuing clearance and identification, the gunman who was earlier suspected to be an inmate held in the cells, turned out to be a local police officer who for yet unknown reasons, went berserk and grabbed a firearm from the Report Office at about 5 a.m. [0300GMT], which he used to attack other officers."

He added say that the none of the detainees in the cells were harmed.

The Kapenguria police station is around 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the Ugandan border.