A lucrative unit where many bribe to join

It is considered an elite police unit where only a chosen few are allowed to serve. Many are ready to oil the palms of their bosses to join the unit, writes  AMOS KAREITHI

The Traffic Police Department has been in existence since 1954. But the 57-year-old department established by the colonial government in Nairobi has developed into a countrywide network of bases, manned by what regular police officers and the public refer to as ‘elites’.

In  2005, the Highway Patrol Unit was established to curb highway robberies and to enforce traffic rules along the main highways countrywide.

However, it has been exploited by some corrupt officers who demand hefty bribes from public service operators.

Although Deputy Police Spokesperson Owino Wahong’o explains that any officer can be deployed to the Traffic Department, investigation shows that owing to easy access to bribes, it has become a preserve of a few blue-eyed boys with high connections.

David Ngure, a retired police officer narrated how he had to induce his superiors with Sh50,000 to be transferred from general duties to the lucrative department.

Another senior police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity, recounts cases of powerful individuals approaching him to allow their sons and daughters to be deployed into the department.

“Some are prepared to pay as much as Sh100,000. Majority of parents are forced to give Sh50,000 to some senior police officers through brokers to have their children fixed in the lucrative wing,” the officer adds.

He recalls how he, too, was acrimoniously removed from the road in Mombasa after he declined a hefty bribe from a tycoon whose trailers were notorious for exceeding the axle weight permitted.

“Even before I could reach my immediate boss and explain what had transpired, I received a signal the following day ordering me to proceed to Garissa for general duties. Luckily I was later promoted but I had suffered,” the senior officer adds.

Ngure recalls: “Life was good. I could make as much as Sh5,000 per day. I was never short of money and every other officer envied us because our work was yielding so much money. Although I was just a constable, I had nothing to complain about.”

Dramatic turn         

But things took a dramatic turn in 2003, when Ngure differed with his base commander over the some transactions.

He recalls he was lured into a bar one night and attacked just after some beers by his superiors who later abandoned him by the roadside.

Every public service vehicle owner dreads the annual inspections.

“Before you can be issued with a licence by Transport Licensing Board (TLB), your vehicle must be inspected even if you have just bought it from a show room. If by bad luck police conduct a crackdown and seize your matatu a day later, the number plates are plucked out,” John Mutiso says.

This, he explains, is the reason matatu operators and drivers withdraw their vehicles from the road every time there is a crackdown by traffic police and motor vehicle inspectors, as it takes more than Sh20,000 to redeem the matatu.

In the eyes of the traffic police, a matatu is a cash cow and can never be without mistakes even if it is brand new and the crew has met all the conditions.

“If a driver is naive and thinks he has met all the conditions, he can be arrested and charged with obstruction, even when there is no complainant. It will take many hours and money in form of cash bail for the operator to prove his innocence,” another driver, Douglas Kinyanjui, says.

He was recently confronted by an officer who was using three expired warrants of arrest, which Kinyanjui had settled after paying fines at the High Court in Nairobi, more than a year ago.