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Traffic officers ordered to quit matatu business or face sack

By FRED MUKINDA February 25th, 2016 1 min read

Traffic police officers engaged in the matatu business will be sacked, National Police Service Commission said on Wednesday.

Also targeted for dismissal from service are officers who have in the course of duty arrested motorists on trumped-up charges, wrongfully detained vehicles and licences as well as demanding bribes.

Owning matatus by traffic officers is deemed as a conflict of interest and the commission feels other operators are often harassed in order to eliminate competition.

The commission has given Kenyans two weeks, to report such cases ahead of vetting of 12,000 officers that starts on March 12.

“In the case of traffic officers, complaints by members of the public may touch on corruption, trumped-up charges, wrongful detention of vehicles and driving licenses, conflict of interest where traffic police own Public Service Vehicles and harassment of PSV’s deemed to give stiff competition to business owned by police officers,” the Commission said in a notice.

The vetting will also consider, discipline and diligence, integrity and financial probity as well as human rights records.

Other officers targeted are attached in the Directorate of Criminal Investigations as well as station commanders across the country.

However, traffic officers will be the first to be vetted, because the traffic department is believed to be the most corrupt of all police units.

People with complaints can file them online, through post office or at the commission’s offices in Sky Park Plaza, Westlands, Nairobi.

In October last year, 63 senior officers, most of them from the traffic police, were fired after vetting unearthed massive corruption.