Although the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has sustained the war against corruption in the National Police Service (NPS) making arrests, the action has failed to deter officers from soliciting bribes.
Yet, graft creates a fertile ground for insecurity to thrive since law breakers, criminals and organised gangs are aided in their illegal activities by officers willing to be compromised to look the other way.
Apart from causing deaths and costly injuries, insecurity undermines the existence of a conducive investment environment. Runaway crime discourages people or firms from investing and increases the cost of doing business either through hiring private security guards, installing alarm systems or building fences.
When the outlawed Mungiki gang reigned supreme some years back, many economic activities were either ruined or became completely unstainable in regions such as Nairobi, Mt Kenya and parts of Rift Valley and Eastern.
Such are the extra costs incurred and evils that emerge when a section of police officers becomes corrupt.
Though it is instructive to note that most police officers are not corrupt, it is the few who engage in the vice that taint the image of NPS, comprising Kenya Police Service and Administration Police Service.
In the recent past, some of them have been seized while soliciting bribes from suspects or innocent people with the latest incident involving Ruai Police Officer Commanding Station (OCS) Duncan Otieng on November 4.
The Chief Inspector allegedly led a raid at a popular entertainment joint along the Eastern by-pass in Utawala, picking some of the revellers and later booking them at the Ruai Police Station where he is in charge.
Demanded bribe
The revellers were put behind bars with no clear charges being levelled against them. To secure their freedom, they were asked to part with Sh5,000 or risk spending the weekend in custody until Monday, November 6 when they were to be arraigned.
A relative of one of the detainees alerted EACC sleuths who swung into action, arresting Otieng as he received the bribes.
“The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) on Saturday evening arrested the OCS for Ruai Police Station, Chief Inspector Duncan Otieng, who was demanding bribes in order to release persons he had locked up in police cells from the previous day, on accusations of being drunk and disorderly,” said EACC Chief Executive Officer Twalib Mbarak.
The four detainees had been accused of being drunk and disorderly. It is claimed they were thrown into the cells after they failed to bribe their way out.
“The OCS told the detainees that failure to pay the demanded amount would see each of them spend the entire weekend in police cells and face criminal charges of being drunk and disorderly, on Monday,” said Mbarak.
Such arrests are common in many parts of the country, especially in Nairobi, where bar operators are made to pay huge sums of money to secure the release of their staff and seized alcohol.
Revellers are also forced to part with bribes ranging from Sh500 to Sh2,000 or even more depending on location with those unable being taken to court on drunk and disorderly charges.
Otieng’s arrest came barely two weeks after two officers were arrested in Eastleigh while demanding Sh100,000 from a businessman.
Police Constable Raphael Nzioka and his colleague Nancy Kerubu were seized on October 19 after allegedly storming the businessman’s mobile phone shop before confiscating handsets worth about Sh300,000 without any justifiable reason.
The two officers based at Eastleigh North Police Post then demanded a huge amount from the complainant in order to return the impounded mobile phones.
Nzioka and Kerubu were arrested about two weeks after the nabbing by EACC of four officers in Matuu, who were found collecting bribes along the Thika-Garissa highway.
Deborah Ngila (Deputy Base Commander), Rosemary Nyokabi, Robert Kabiru and Christine Chebon, all based at Matuu Police Station, were arrested on October 7 after allegedly collecting some Sh12,000 in bribes within 30 minutes.
Five days earlier, a police Inspector was arrested in Luanda, Vihiga County as the officer solicited for a Sh500,000 bribe in order to withdraw charges against a businessman, his wife and daughter.
The complainant, a transporter whose goods were heading to South Sudan, had allegedly been detained by the senior officer on suspicion of carrying stolen goods. The officer demanded the huge bribe but after negotiations, he received Sh200,000 on October 2. EACC detectives arrested him immediately after he was given the amount.
On June 14, 2023, the anti-graft body apprehended four traffic police officers for collecting bribes from motorists at Kware bus stop along Outer Ring Road.
The officers were identified as Abraham Kiptoo from Embakasi Police Station while Charo Katana, Sarah Karimi and Burton Mathenge are based at Buruburu Police Station.
At the time of the arrest carried out in response to several complaints from road users, EACC sleuths claim that the officers had collected about Sh15,830 in less than two hours.
Worrying trend
The arrests underpin a worrying deep-rooted culture that refuses to die despite numerous warnings and anti-graft campaigns. Bribe giving and taking has almost been normalised in the country, and the givers too are culpable for abetting the vice.
While commending EACC for trying to weed out corrupt officers, Esther Waringa, a governance expert, says the fight must start at the top.
According to Waringa, the desired development cannot be achieved as long as the country remains insecure due police’s inability to secure it.
“Government development agenda revolves around security. If security agencies are corrupted, then the agenda won’t be achieved. What this implies is that good government must start from the police service before extending to other arms of government,” stated Waringa.
To her, corruption in police is rampant because it is the commanders who condone the vice by allowing junior officers to solicit for bribes.
“Corruption decapitation should start at the top otherwise it shall be an exercise in futility; EACC should start investigating from the top instead of going for junior officers on our roads,” she added.
According to EACC Spokesperson Eric Ngumbi, the commission has been receiving numerous complaints about instances of extortion and bribery involving police officers.
“The emerging trend shows that in most cases, it is no longer bribery to forbear law enforcement action, but pure extortion of money from citizens who are not facing any legitimate accusation of violating the law,” he said.
To stop the vice, Ngumbi is challenging police commanders at all levels to ensure that officers under them refrain from such acts.
Poorly rated
Though many officers remain professional and committed to the motto ‘Service to All’, the police service continues to be rated poorly on corruption.
The National Ethics and Corruption Survey, 2021 released last year by EACC, showed Kenya Police ranked first at 82.1 per cent among government departments and agencies where one is most likely to encounter corruption and unethical practices followed by the Department of Registration of Persons (25.2 per cent) and Department of Immigration (17.3 per cent).
Inspector General of Police Japeth Koome recently admitted corruption is rife in the police. Yet, when he was being vetted for suitability of that office last November, Koome vowed before members of the National Assembly Committee on Administration and Internal Security and Senate Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations that he would slay the dragon that is corruption.
He admitted before the joint committees that graft is ruining the image of the police as well as acknowledging that bribery was rampant along the roads.
“I will not sit here to attempt to defend what is happening on our roads,” said Koome, promising to introduce a reward scheme for members of the public who report cases of officers receiving bribes.
It is not clear whether Koome has kept his pledge by rewarding those who expose graft among his officers.
Corruption remains a hindrance to the government’s efforts to counter the rising levels of insecurity in the country. It destroys the moral authority of law enforcement undermining public trust and confidence in the law.
Consequently, the eroded confidence has created a barrier between members of the public and officers leading to reduced cooperation efforts in combating crime. Sometimes, arrested suspects go back to crime after buying their freedom.
As a result of rogue officers colluding with criminals, many Kenyans hold a negative perception against law enforcers. No wonder, the culture of mob justice is widespread due to the failure by police and courts to guarantee justice.
The huge amount of money police officers extort from transporters has threatened the survival of many in the sector who not only resort to shortcuts but break the law as well. It is not unusual for matatu crews to misbehave right in front of traffic police officers.
They overlap, speed, drop and pick up passengers in undesignated areas, and harass other road users with impunity. Cases abound of rogue officers being caught transporting aliens who are either assisted in acquiring Kenyan citizenship or shipped out of the country.
There have been complaints of some officers having ties with terrorists.
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