A fresh row has emerged within the police department following the formation of a special unit to arrest corrupt officers.
The unit, which has been in operation for the last one week, is based at Vigilance House – the police headquarters in Nairobi – and it is made up of 300 officers drawn from the General Service Unit and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations departments.
Since its set up, the team has so far nabbed nine traffic police officers and two members of the public who were allegedly found soliciting and receiving bribes.
Nonetheless, the group’s operations have been disputed by traffic police officers who are now lamenting that the unit is only targeting the department.
The lamenting officers claim that corruption should first be dealt with at the high ranks in the service including Vigilance House and DCI headquarters.
“This if not checked, may culminate into departmental balkanization and warfare,” one officer complained.
The special unit has been publicly roughing up and arresting officers suspected to be collecting bribes – a move that has been faulted by the affected officers who now want the Inspector-General of Police Joseph Boinett to explain how officers who are found not to have received bribes will be “compensated” for being embarrassed.
Last week on Thursday afternoon, the unit nabbed Constable Jackson Chepsiror Kiptanui who was allegedly caught soliciting a bribe from a motorist.
The officer, who was later locked up at the Thika Police Station, was found with Sh14,450. The cash included 112 Sh100 notes and 65 Sh50 notes.
On Friday, along the Embu-Nairobi road, the team arrested Corporal Julius Mutune, a driver attached to the Eastern region traffic headquarters, and Ms Jane Marigu Ireri, an Embu County Government revenue collector, who was allegedly receiving a bribe from the corporal.
On the same day, three other officers and a motorist were dramatically arrested at Kiganjo, along the Nyeri-Nanyuki road, and Sh15,950 seized.
-kenyans.co.ke
