Kenyan President William Ruto has ordered the deployment of special police units in the capital after a series of violent daytime attacks.
The Tuesday deployment of the General Service Unit (GSU) and Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU) police is part of an intervention approved by the Cabinet to reduce surging criminal activities in Kenya's capital, Nairobi.
Ruto said the special police units will increase security surveillance.
The GSU police are usually deployed to handle riots or extreme insecurity situations. The daily Nation newspaper reports that officers from the unit were spotted patrolling the streets Tuesday.
Some security analysts in Nairobi describe the government's approach to the situation as quick, but unsustainable.
Security expert George Musamali told VOA that the special units are not the best solution to the crime problem.
"It needs much more than having more boots on the streets and having boots that are not trained to deal with crime in the urban centers," he said. "These people that have been deployed, normally use them in border front-line areas but we have brought them in the city."
According to Kenya's national police service, muggings and stabbings in the capital have increased. In one incident that circulated on social media, a man on a motorcycle snatched a cellphone from an individual in a parking lot in broad daylight.
On Monday, police released a list of crime hotspots in the capital, warning the public to avoid them.
Nairobi is Kenya's largest city with a population of nearly 5 million people.
