Occurrence book ‘disappears’ from police station
Panic has hit Asumbi Police Station in Homa Bay County after an Occurrence Book (OB) went missing under unclear circumstances.
According to a police report filed at Rangwe Police Station, an officer in charge of the station identified as Mr Samuel Lang’at on Wednesday reported that he had been informed that the OB was nowhere to be seen.
“The officer reported that he was informed by Ms Jane Akite, an officer at the station that as she was going to book a case of gender based violence at the report and inquiry office when she realised that the OB was missing,” the report reads in part.
She then decided made inquiries from a fellow officer by the name Mr James Mburu, who was on duty, and he in return told her that he was never handed the OB when he reported to work during the morning shift.
According to Mr Mburu, he had inquired from another officer by the name Mr James Njuguna Kareithi when he was handing over the duty to him but he could not give a clear account of the OB’s whereabouts.
Mr Kareithi said that he last saw the OB book on the evening of Tuesday, July 2, when he took over duties from Ms Zipporah Jepleting.
It is then that the Officer Commanding Station (OCS) in Rangwe on receipt of the report visited Asumbi Police Station.
“The OCS then ordered that a search be carried out in the houses within the compound but no recovery was made,” the police report reads.
An OB is a register maintained by the National Police Service (NPS) in various police stations in which every significant occurrence or incident being reported to the station is recorded.
Although the NPS in August 2020 launched the digitalization of police records, such cases of the manual OBs disappearing in police stations are not uncommon.