"Police officers who demand bribes may be fired."
Restrictive rules aimed at curbing bribery by law enforcement officers are on the way in Kenya. Statements made by the Minister of Interior, Kithure Kindiki, hint that a new season of "zero tolerance" toward corruption could be (conditional is a must because Kenya has taught us that there is a masai mara between saying and doing...) envisioned.
Kindiki said law enforcement must be on the side of the citizens and serve them diligently and without taking bribes.
"We will fire those who take bribes from Kenyans. We have to respect the citizens. I am a minister because of these people, and the president is also in place because of them," Kindiki said.
The statements come at a time when the police are in the eye of the storm both for their often harsh response to protesters who have taken to the streets and for the tribally or at least territorially-motivated predicament that is emerging on the border between the Kericho and Kisumu regions in the west of the country. President Ruto recently changed the leadership of the anti-corruption agency Eacc. Today in every public facility where officers work, somewhere there is a sign with the phone number of an office or personnel who can be alerted in case of extortion attempts.
There are already known incidents of foreign nationals secretly filming or recording bribery and turning to the Eacc to report the matter. Situations that are often resolved with transfers of officers found guilty or in flagrante delicto. As of today, instead of transfer, there may be loss of job. The police's worst enemy, however, is not those who can report illegal incidents, but the fear of the victims themselves to do so.
(photo - Twitter)