127 Kenya traffic officers sacked for corruption

By Andrew Wasike

NAIROBI (AA) - A total of 127 traffic police officers in Kenya have been fired after failing a vetting process, authorities said Tuesday.

National Police Service Commission Chairman Johnston Kavuludi said the officers were among 904 police officers who had undergone a suitability test.

The officers were dismissed for corruption that has long plagued the country’s police traffic department. Most of the officers who were dismissed had large sums of money in their bank accounts and could not account for the funds.

Kavuludi said some senior officials received large sums of money from junior officers in the traffic department.

“[With] 127 officers out of the 904 traffic officers so far having been vetted and dismissed from work, it is a clear demonstration of the endemic vice of corruption in the traffic department,” Kavuludi told reporters at a news conference.

He added that unlike in 2015 where only 4 percent of vetted police officers were dismissed, the figure had shot up to 14 percent in 2016, an indication that corruption is still rampant.

Twenty-six officers were sacked for refusing to submit to the vetting panel tasked with identifying corrupt police officers.

Kavuludi tried to assure the public that sufficient mechanisms have been put in place to monitor the sacked officers to ensure they do not indulge in criminal activities.

He vowed the dismissals were only the start of the fight against corruption in Kenya’s police service.