MP Mbui wants body cameras introduced to clamp down on corrupt traffic police

Kathiani Member of Parliament Robert Mbui is suggesting the introduction of wearable cameras, popularly known as body cameras, among traffic police to tame corruption.

This is in the wake of a report by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) that traffic police and regular police are among the most bribery-prone public institutions.

The 2023 National Ethics and Corruption Survey released Wednesday shows that there is a likelihood that each time a service is sought in the traffic police department, one is likely to be asked for a bribe 1.45 times.

In Mbui’s view, the government should introduce wearable cameras to keep track of police officer’s activities on Kenyan roads.

“We need to introduce technology to mitigate this issue of corruption. We have so many traffic police officers on our roads yet there is no record of what they see. Cameras can pick who is speeding or passing on the wrong side of the road, no matter who it is. You will then just be sent a bill to pay,” the MP said during Citizen TV’s Daybreak program on Thursday.

Commonly used by law enforcement officers in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, body cameras are typically worn on the torso of the body of the police officer's uniform.

They record events the officers are involved in from the perspective of the officer wearing it. Law enforcement officers turn on their body cameras at the beginning of their shift to record footage for the entire duration of their shift.

Mbui however noted a need to pay police officers better to cushion them from the biting economic times and ostensibly reduce their involvement in bribery.

“We may need to figure out how to pay civil servants better. The government has taken most of our money with excessive taxes. The take-home has gone down and these people go out to these offices and streets to make an extra buck,” the MP said.

Wednesday’s report showed that one is most likely to be asked for a bribe while seeking police security services. This was followed by seeking to bail an arrested person and reporting a crime or writing a statement.

Other government services where bribe soliciting is prevalent are when one is undergoing a driving test, registering a business and applying for a Teachers Service Commission (TSC) number.

This is not the first time body cameras have been proposed as a corruption-taming measure.

In June 2022, Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Commissioner General Githii Mburu said the agency’s officials would adopt the gadgets to curb tax cheating and bribery.

Mburu at the time said these would be used mainly by staff who work in the domestic tax department and customs and border control.

The tax body has however not introduced the measure since.