A group by name Sovereign Watchdog, has written to Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji complaining about harrassment of motorists on the Juja-Thika road by police.
The group says that police demand bribes as high as Kshs. 20,000.
'Most of those arrested are not taken to court and are forced to part with Kshs. 20,000 to secure their freedom', the letter said in part.
The letter was also copied to Directorate of Criminal Investigations Kenya (DCI) and Inspector General, National Police Service Kenya.
Cases of harassment by police have always been there, the sad things is that the amounts of bribes demanded keep on rising despite the tough economic times.
Last week, the Laikipia County Women Representative Catherine Waruguru clashed with the Officer Commanding Station (OCS) Ali Abdi, when she defended motorists who had been arrested in Nanyuki, allegedly for flouting traffic laws.
Public Service Vehicles (PSV) owners have often staged protests, but this habit seems to fall on deaf ears.
Below is the full letter.
TO THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS
NSSF Building, Block ‘A’ 19th Floor P.O. Box 30701-00100. Nairobi, Kenya 19TH MARCH 2019 To whom it may concern, HARASSMENT OF MOTORISTS AT JUJA-THIKA ROAD BY TRAFFIC OFFICERS I would like to bring to your attention an urgent issue that needs to be addressed by your office. There is massive bribery on the said location by traffic officers manning that road. I am one of the victims as I have been arrested before by traffic officers from Juja police station and they tried to solicit for bribes from me unsuccessfully.
I went further to investigate on how this vice is being carried out on the same station and I got tangible evidence on how police arrested motorists and solicited bribes from them. Below is a list of cars arrested on various dates (there is an entry of this data on the police station O.B book) and out of the said cases, only one motorist was arraigned in court due to the fact that he couldn’t bail himself out by raising the amounts requested (20, 000 KES). The rest individuals had to part with 20,000 KES to secure their freedom. CASES WITH O.B NUMBERS AND CAR DETAILS (REG. NUMBERS) O.B 08/17/3/2019 JAMLECK WAITHERA KBU 510W T/VOXY JOSEPH KANGETHE KBS 803D T/NZE JOSEPH NGANGA KCS 235S 0B 110/17/03/2019 JOHN WAINAINA KCN 692Z M/COLT JAMES NJOROGE KBU 450Z NISSAN WINGROAD OB 15/17/03/2019 0615HRS PHILIP SIEMA KWN LORRY HENRY KAMAU KBN 834N XTRAIL (NISSAN KEVIN NJIJA KCB 917T N/WINGROAD (Only this one was taken to court on 18/03/019) Out of the above 8 cases, only one case was arraigned to court. All motorists listed above were driving under the influence of the alcohol.
I would like you to do further investigations as to why only one person was taken to court and why the rest were ordered to give a cash bail of (20,000 KES) released and never taken to court.
The above matter is just a snippet of what has been happening on a daily basis on that road. I am a regular user of that road and I can go further to provide video coverage of the bribery events happening on this road.
I decided to take up this matter as I am a daily user of this road and I cannot afford to be harassed almost everyday, I cannot bail myself every day on false allegations… Still this is very threatening to my businesses as I have commercial motors on that road.
I would kindly request for speedy investigations and actions on the said station and especially the leader of this heinous act of corruption, the base commander Juja police station who is leading the juniors in soliciting bribes, and harassment if you don't give hand outs.
A copy of this letter has been sent to different government organs and media forums for an oversight and independent investigations.
Kind Regards
Sovereign Watchdog
C.C Directorate of Criminal Investigations Kenya (D.C.I) Inspector General, National Police Service Kenya For Media Digest- Citizen TV, Nation TV , KTN TV & Other Media Outlets