BY Dickens Wasonga – KISUMU , KENYA.
Agreed. It could be true that corruption is rife within the ranks of the police. It might also be correct to say that the police in Kenya still leads the pack on matters relating to corruption.
However, as we all know, it takes two to tungo.If our officers are so corrupt, then a section of our society is corrupt too because corruption is a- two -way traffic where one party must be willing to offer a bribe and the other also willing to receive it.
In both cases the two parties are deemed to be guilty of the vice and should therefore be treated as such. But what do we see happening in reality whenever such cases present?
The most common scenario is one where the authorities choose to punish only one party involved and let the other one to go scot free.To me, this is selective application of the law which does not seem to target the long term objective of the government’s resolve to fight and reduce incidences of the vice in our midst.
Kenyans who like to catch the latest in the news on their TV sets have of late been treated to a really humiliating episodes where some of the officers attached to the traffic department are seen on video footage allegedly taking bribes from the matatu operators along our roads. Depending on how one looks at it, I believe it is so embarrassing to our officers who are seen on those footage shamelessly receiving bribes.
On the other hand, it is even more shameful and humiliating experience to the families,friends and relatives of these officers who have to watch their kinsmen subjected to such unfair media trials.
Although such incidences have served to bring out the rot within the force, to some extent, it has also largely brought to the fore the insensitive nature with which we handle and treat suspects especially where those involved are people of little means.
One wonders just what exactly does the Kenya Anti -Corruption Commission targets to achieve by this kind of approach to the war against graft. Could it be that the commission is seeking to get cheap publicity and therefore decides to use some of the local TV stations to show the public that it is true they are fighting the vice?
Truth be told , most of us who watched the latest of such clips could not help but sympathise with that poor female officer in the footage whose attempts to run away from the rolling cameras became futile.The fear of being seen on TV by all and sundry later that evening was so overwhelming to her that she chose to run but had nowhere to run to.
Surely ,there must be a more decent way in which officers from KACC can go about this business of clumping down on the bad apples within the force and still spare the would be victims all this embarrassment which currently appears to be the norm.
Do not get me wrong. I am not an advocate of graft. In fact in the past I have penned several articles which were published in various news outlets both locally and internationally which served to expose graft .
I believe in fairness and feel the same should be extended to our brothers and sisters enlisted in the force. Many a times,they work under very difficult environments although that does not means they must be corrupt. But we all need to consider that these are our daughters and sons.Some of them are our fathers and mothers while others are our spouses. In terms of how suspects are treated, dignity should at all times be observed and suspects whether senior or junior, poor or rich be treated equally.
Sometime this year, the police arrested a senior politician from Nyanza for allegedly assaulting a junior policeman at a road block somewhere in Rachuonyo. However the arrest was made so secret that even journalists who got wind of the juicy story could not be allowed anywhere near the office of the area provincial CID boss where the MP was recording his statements. Even when it was time to arraign him in court, the whole affair was a well kept secret.
This was not the first or the last time a case involving a suspect viewed as senior and powerful was being treated differently.The arrest would have been a fairly different story if a poor little Kenyan was the culprit.
Police officers, just like any other Kenyan deserve to be treated with dignity and respect even when found to be corrupt. Choosing to humiliate them like we have seen in the recent past will not help reduce the vice but is likely to bring resentment and defiance.
In any case , most of the KACC officers were at one point also in the force and should treat their colleagues who remained behind with dignity when apprehending them. My small mind also tells me that all suspects are considered innocent until proved otherwise before a competent court of law.
Just because one has been arrested does not mean he or she is guilty of the offences they are facing. To refresh your memory, a TV footage showing a policeman chasing and shooting youths who were demonstrating in the streets of Kisumu following the disputed 2007 elections results was once described as the work of fiction by the authorities.
What does that tells you? It means even those ones we are shown of the ‘bribe taking traffic police officers’ too can as well be work of fiction ,who knows ? That does not mean they are and that is why it is up to the prosecution side to prove in court that indeed those fellows are guilty.
My question to officers of KACC still remains this – can you guys get a better way to treat those you arrest while either allegedly soliciting or receiving bribes? Can you do so without having to drag the suspects through the glare of cameras?
Not long ago a court directed the police to stop conducting investigations in full glare of the media. This was after one Onyancha from Kisii region of Nyanza took the police in a whirlwind visits to crime scenes where he allegedly murdered scores of people, all this time with the press in hot pursuit.
If it was wrong to try Onyancha , himself a suspect who had confessed to having committed the bizarre killings through the media, what makes it right to do the same thing with these police officers?
The other concern is ,what really become of the drivers and touts who are always only too willing to part with ”kitu kidogo”? Are they also arrested alongside the police officers because we also see them dish out bribes to the officers in the footage? This is still a mystery to many of us who have been curious to know where and how all this war on graft eventually ends.
I may be wrong here and I stand to be corrected but I am yet to see any of the matatu operators arraign in court for being part of the game. Is this not selective application of the law where only one party is viewed as corrupt while the other one who is equally guilty is let to go unpunished? Is this approach yielding good results?
In fact, if you ask any officer attached to the traffic department about what really happens on our roads they are likely to tell you that even before they ask for the bribes,the operators are always only too willing to part with it.
Any honest Kenyan who uses public transport will tell you that in most such cases even before they are signalled to stop, the touts will always be seen struggling to ask for fifty shillings notes either from his driver or worse still, from the passengers with the intention to hand it over to the police.
Many also believe that in several instances where the police issue matatau operators who violate traffic rules with the notice to attend court, the operators are never keen to go that path. Instead they often opt for the easier way of buying their way and prefers to settle such matters out of court.
To fight corruption effectively, all of us must play our part and be willing to change our attitude and approach on how we would want the issue dealt with because it is true corruption eats the economic fabric of any nation and must be fought at all cost.
Have you ever asked yourself why must us ,Kenyans force ourselves into an already overloaded vehicle for example? Why do we insist in boarding or getting out of a matatu in areas which are not designated for such things or better still, why would you offer a bribe to a police officer even when you know you have complied with all the regulations. It all boils down to our attitude. We have reached a level where many people think nothing is possible without taking a short cut.
Believe it or not , if no one is willing to offer a bribe chances are acts of corruption would tremendously reduce not only on our roads but also in many aspects of our lives as a nation and we must start by teaching our people to know that corruption does not pay and must not be away of life even as we seek to prosecute graft cases.
Why would we for example be only focusing all our attention and energy onto the police while so many graft related cases are awash in many government and private institutions throughout the country? A number of such cases are usually highlighted in the media’, complete with facts but rarely do we see them followed up and culprits nabbed.
If corruption is such a bad thing, as we all agree, then we must begin to fight the vice at all levels so that it is not reduced to a war against the small fish who can not mobilise resources to escape the long arms of the law through either political and economic influence.
We would like to see many of our powerful members of parliament, Permanent Secretaries, heads of parastatals who are corrupt investigated and prosecuted. That way, justice will be delivered to all and many Kenyans will henceforth be faithful and more willing to join the in the war against graft.
ENDS.