The government is in the final stages of implementing a move to equip all police officers with body cameras in an effort to curb corruption that is rampant in various sectors of law enforcement.
This was revealed by Interior PS Raymond Omollo in a round table interview with digital media. According to the EACC, traffic management has been noted as a major contributor to road safety violations that have the potential to result in lethal accidents.
“We are working on introducing body cameras. When people know someone is watching, people tend to be well-behaved,” he stated.
The body cameras are expected to give an unbiased recording of police-civilian interactions in a bid to ensure transparency. They will capture every interaction. The move is expected to deter officers from engaging in corrupt practices.
It will also give evidence of cases of misconduct. However, PS Raymond Omollo failed to give an exact date for the launch of body cameras on police officers.
The PS also failed to clarify whether detectives attached to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) would be required to wear the cameras. The question arose out of the speculations that the DCI played a hand in forced abductions.
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“We should look at it more broadly so that then we don’t take away the ability for officers to pick on something that would be good for public order and safety,” he stated.
In 2023, President William Ruto commissioned a taskforce to find out ailments in the National Police Service. The Maraga-led task force identified corruption as the root cause of all problems in the service.
It noted rampant corruption, a culture of impunity, and the overall erosion of public confidence. The interior PS assured that the government would not condone corruption in NPS and would implement programs to weed out the endemic.
