Activist Okiya Omtatah is seeking court orders compelling Inspector-General David Kimaiyo, Safaricom, Airtel, Telkom-Orange and Essar (Yu Mobile) to restore the 999 service.
“The nation is currently under the grip of insecurity and the toll-free 999 police emergency response number is defunct,” he says in a suit filed yesterday at the High Court in Nairobi.
The court certified the matter as urgent and fixed a hearing date for Thursday next week.
Gang attack on village
Mr Omtatah claims that due to the defunct emergency line, he had to call Mr Kimaiyo and Criminal Investigation Department Director Ndegwa Muhoro on their personal mobile phones when a gang recently attacked Akobwait village in Busia County.
“The lack of an emergency number amounts to police abdicating their duty to prevent crime,” he says.
The provision of those emergency numbers, the petitioner argues, is a corporate social responsibility of the mobile service providers sued alongside the police chief.
-Daily Nation
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