Suburban
A member of the Mandara Crime Consultative Committee Mr Gilbert Matara, who was in charge of zone patrols, has resigned from the committee as there appears to be problems emanating from funding of the zone patrols which he was in charge of.
Ivan Zhakata
Suburban Reporter
Mr Matara did not explain his reason for leaving the committee but in a letter he seems to be complaining that he was removed from most Mandara security groups by the Mandara CCC chairperson Mr Stanley Nzvere on the recommendation and agreement with the Mandara CCC vice chairperson.
Mr Nzvere also said he was not in a position to give the reasons why Mr Matara resigned because he should tell the residents on his own why he is no longer part of the committee.
Mr Matara, who was in charge of coordinating and deploying zone patrols, resigned last month from the
Mandara CCC.
“When zone patrols were initiated, most committee members including the chairman attended not all but some and I believed then that the communication was clear to all present,” he said.
“It therefore baffles me that the zone patrol arrangement should therefore be termed a ‘Gilbert’ project especially when funds to pay for the patrols were in the main going through the Mandara CCC account with the exception of some that we receipted at the patrol office and can be accounted for on demand.
“For the record, the costs of running this project has been way above the recovery cost which we initially indicated to the residents and I have the accounts to prove this if need be. It is therefore quite disturbing that this is being perceived as a profit venture for me,” Mr Matara wrote in his resignation letter.
Mr Matara said the Mandara CCC bank account has had its own challenges but because of the commitment he gave to residents he ensured “that patrollers were paid while issues were being sorted out and regularised without any assistance whatsoever from the chairman or his vice” despite his appeals to them.
“It therefore remains an option of the residents involved to chart a new means of remaining connected to the zones or that I disband the teams and let the will of the committee which in my opinion is largely dysfunctional hence the poor disjointed communication you have received in the last 24 hours prevail.
“As all who are fortunate to receive this message have or will have now have my contact details you can directly message me with your views and opinions on the best way forward.
‘‘I will do my best to bring you up to speed on what I believe to be the best way forward to either rescue or disband the zone patrol arrangement that I have fought so hard to work and bring down crime in Mandara as evidenced by the results especially over the last two months. I remain committed to the cause,” he said.
Mr Matara added: “For the record, it was always clear to me that all levels of enhanced security namely panic buttons, zone patrols and checkpoints when structured well, would do well to enhance security for residents of which I am a part of.”
He said the panic reaction security system which he started remains open with business as usual and communication for all registered residents to that effect shall also be made on the relevant platform.
Mandara CCC chair Mr Nzvere confirmed Mr Matara’s exit and said it was procedural to remove him from social media groups he had nothing to do with.
“As his document goes there is nothing sinister at all, he was removed from most and not all the Mandara CCC groups, yes that is very true.
‘‘However, what he does not say is that he had effectively resigned from the Mandara CCC where he was the committee member responsible for operations.
“It was just procedural to excuse him from groups he had nothing to do with under the (Mandara) CCC as he had resigned. We did not remove him from his home group as he is also a resident. What I would not want to discuss though is why he resigned in the first place,” said Mr Nzvere.
“I would rather he tells the community why himself and we are not in any way involved in this. All we did was just to make sure that having left of his own volition the same should happen to his presence in the groups where he was as a result of being a member of the (Mandara) CCC. It must be noted that there was and is no bad intentions but simply following procedures,” he added.
