There was an odd case of police reportedly fighting corruption in Kisumu last week. Odd because we are used to reports about officers collecting bribes, not arresting the suspects.
The manner of the arrests last Thursday and the status of the suspects were equally interesting.
The regional police boss, acting on reports of an illegally erected roadblock at Obwolo in Kajulu, drove there in his private car, camouflaged as a civilian.
On arrival, he was menacingly waved to stop by individuals in a group of more than 20, told he was under arrest for breaking Covid-19 containment rules and asked to part with a bribe to secure his freedom.
The police boss duly called his juniors to swoop in. It turned out that the illegal roadblock commanders were five local administration officials – two chiefs and three assistant chiefs.
For a police force historically tainted with corruption, a rare demonstration of public service by a random officer such as the one involved in the Kisumu arrests will do nothing to improve its image.
On his way to the Obwolo roadblock, the regional police boss most likely looked away as his traffic officers collected even fatter bribes at the Mamboleo Junction on the Kisumu-Kakamega Road.
In September 2020, anti-graft NGO Transparency International warned that police corruption in countries like Kenya was becoming a pandemic as bad as Covid.
It cited cases where police demanded bribes from people in quarantine facilities and detained those who couldn’t afford to pay for longer periods, putting the victims’ lives at risk.
Daily scenes of officers collecting bribes from public transport operators flouting Covid-19 rules on Kenyan roads suggest that the law enforcement corruption pandemic has yet to be contained.
Officers collecting bribes
The police-like illegal roadblocks springing up on earth roads in places like Kajulu not only signal the spread of the corruption pandemic to the villages, but they also point to the depth of the rot in government where everyone is looking for something to eat.
Kajulu’s eating chiefs, whom we hear will face unspecified disciplinary action, could be forgiven for thinking that they aren’t being subjected to the same integrity standards as their seniors in Nairobi.
Senior government officials and wealthy business people implicated in the ‘Covid millionaires’ scandal, involving the shady procurement of PPEs by the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa), are yet to be punished for their crimes, which put the lives of all Kenyans at risk at the height of the pandemic last year.
President Uhuru Kenyatta sometime last year issued orders for quick investigations into the Sh7.8 billion tenders, complete with a deadline.
What we have been treated to instead are comic shows in Parliament where tender surrogates are regularly afforded all the time to tell tales about stumbling on millions while passing by the agency offices or their answered prayers. If you can’t prosecute the Covid millionaires, just let our chiefs eat in peace.
