Kidero suspends five Nairobi County staff over graft

Nairobi Governor has suspended five county employees filmed as they extorted money from hawkers in an investigative television series.

In the program Jivo Pevu, aired by KTN on Monday, the officers are seen collecting money from vendors and threaten to arrest those who do not give them cash.

Nairobi City Secretary Robert Ayisi identified one of those captured in the clip as Ms Angeline Kamami, who is seen negotiating a bribe of Sh4,000 with a hawker whose wares have been confiscated and loaded in a waiting van.

Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero, when asked about the extortion ring said: "There could be...anybody who faces extortion, let them come to me, they don’t need to go to a third party, we will arrest them, we will make sure they are jailed and we will sack them.”

Dr Ayisi said three of the officers are in custody

The programme also showed hawkers engaging in running battles with the county officers and some claimed they were beaten and hurt by the county staff for selling their wares in the city streets.

Most of those interviewed painted a grim picture of how deep rooted corruption is in Nairobi County.

“They collect money twice a week from each food kiosk, they say they are collecting on behalf of the department of health,” a hawker said.

The county officers extorting money are not in uniform neither do they have identification documents but the vendors know them.

Dr Ayisi said the county is working on fighting corruption and improving its image.

“We have embarked on a culture change, customer care training and rebranding exercise for our staff member, identification documents will be issued to all staff members,” he said in a statement.

The county secretary also said they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to help fight graft in the county government.