INVESTIGATIVE Report By Our Special Correspondent

CAN anyone in the higher authorities either in the Office of the President, the police and the Administration Police authorities make a move with speed with the view of bringing sanity in the services of the Administration, which is denting the image of the country.

The image of the Kenya government which needs cleansing has been soiled and defaced by rampant corruption practiced by traffic police and administration police officers.

It has been established beyond any reasonable doubt that the administration Police officers posted to work in the outlaying district, divisions and rural administrative locations have shamelessly and corruptive established illegal “Kangaroo Courts”

These ‘Kangaroo Courts are only there and meant for the purpose of minting money earned illegally from unsuspecting members of the public..

A case in point is an ugly incident which occurred at Rapogi Trading Center in Uriri district,within Migori County.

The head f the Administration police unit posted at the nearby District Officers Divisional office in the company of several other APs made a surprise visit to a local bar located in Rapogi Market. There were several revelers as the raid took place during the wee hours of the night. After the exchange of harsh words with the revelers, the visit by policemen degenerated into a brawl.

The brawl resulted in the head of the AP sustaining minor injuries on his arm. THe revelers took to their heels scampering for safety in all directions.

THe next morning the head of the AP fook a P3 form, arrested one of the patrons of the bar, a young trader at the market who is running a butchery shop and locked him into police custody at the DO’s office. Acting on the fake P3 form which was later to emerged had not been filled and signed by a competent medic to warrant the suspect to be charged with the assault case.

The mother of the suspect who had by then spent two night in police custody struggled to raised Kshs 30,000 and paid the money to the head of the AP for the release of her son. No criminal charge was preferred against the young man.

A few days later the no nonsense Uriri D.C George Lagat got a wind of the matter. The D.C.immediately summoned both parties and the head of the AP to appear before the district security committee for interrogation. It was during this exercise when the P2 Form was established to have been a fake one. And the D.C’s team found that no criminal offence had been committed by the suspect and ordered the AP boss to refund the money which he had taken from the suspect’s mother immediately. The AP boss admitted having received the bribe money. To-date no money has been refunded to the family and the matter has since degenerated to hide and seek.

Similar cases are so common with the APs posted to work in the rural locations and divisional headquarters in the remote part of the country far away from towns. People apprehended by the AP for the allegedly committing petty criminal offence have always bought their freedom after parting with colossal amount of money. The money is pocketed by the AP and never get into the government coffers via the established courts of laws and other government coffers such as the KRA

Brewers and consumers of the illicit ”Chang’aa” are more prone to abuse by the APs. Some of them are forced to part with large sums of money on weekly basis as ‘Protection Fees”.

It is not uncommon for the culprits suspected for having committed serious criminal offences to escape punishment so long as they could raise bribe money, such criminals go scot’s free.

Another category of the Wananchi targeted by both APs and Traffic Police officers are the Boda Boda motorbike riders, particularly those rising on rural access and feeder roads. It is no longer secret that traffic police officers are always demanding the bribe money with menace. Some of the Inter-regional highways linking Kenya with the neighboring Tanzania and Uganda are commonly used by foreigners from those countries who come here for businesses while using country buses and matatus of the country. These foreigners sit inside these vehicles and witness the illicit transactions. The exchange of bribe money is done in full view of these foreigners, who when they get back home started soiling Kenya’s good name and question the sanity to our roads.

Ends