
Kajiado county commissioner David Kipkemoi has revealed that the ethics and anti-corruption commission detectives who arrested three police officers along Namanga highway had his blessings.
.Kipkemei who was recently elevated to his new position by Interior CS Fred Matinag’i, in an exclusive interview with Kajiado News Update on Monday evening, said his office was fully aware of a myriad of complaints raised by motorists about their conduct.
“We have received many damning reports about rampant corruption by our officers, who are supposed to maintain sanity on our road but have turned to be vampires,” said Kipkemei.
He went on; “This is the reason we ensured to work with outside detectives to nab them in the act. The three arrested traffic police officers are operating under Kajiado Central traffic base command and have all been positively identified”.
The commissioner said he was shocked to find out that even a senior officer in the rank of an inspector was right inside the cartel of rogue officers taking bribes on Kenyan roads.
He gave the names of the officers as; Eugene Barasa, the officer who was captured on camera dancing next to his female colleague before they were arrested.
The county commissioner said the woman, who was seen getting out of unmarked car with Barasa, has also been identified as Grace Wanjiro, while a third one who escaped and later crushed a colleague’s private car was identified as Inspector of Police Okwuemwa Nyamboga.
Nyamboga is Kajiado Central deputy traffic base commander. He escaped during the sting operation in a Toyota vehicle car registration no. KBC 564 Y, towards Namanga and later turned to an earth road leading to Kenya Marble Quarries in Kajiado West sub county.
The inspector lost control on the road and hit a tree. He broke his left hand and suffered cuts on his face.
He was taken to Kajiado referral hospital by the arresting detectives but was later transferred to Nairobi West Hospital in Nairobi.
Kipkemei said from now on, he will work closely with the local county police commander to ensure that all cases regarding traffic offences end up in court. “We cannot have those officers on the roads and we are not seeing people charged for driving un-roadworthy cars on the roads,” he added.
Police in Kajiado have no clue where the other two traffic police officers were detained, although EACC detectives had indicated on Thursday last week that they would appear in court this week.
“President Kenyatta gave them an opportunity to ensure sanity on our roads after removing national transport and safety authority officers but they are abusing that chance. As we speak now, we have increased our surveillance against traffic police officers. We cannot tell them how but you will see many more of them arraigned in courts of law,” said Kipkemei.
EACC spokesman, Yassin Amaro, said last week on Thursday the three traffic officers were allegedly found taking bribes along the road from motorists.
Amaro said after receiving complaints from public and other government agencies about the said officers at identified scene, their detectives mounted video cameras which recorded the errant officers engaging in activities contrary to the traffic rules.
They were arrested after one hour of surveillance and crumbled Sh4, 000 notes found on them.