Take action the against officers fuelling graft

Reports that police officers are making up to Sh100 million a month illegally by duping citizens that they are paying bail have cast yet another pall on the reputation of the service which has over the years become synonymous with corruption.

Despite a change in leadership, vetting of senior staff, and provision of medical cover and other changes meant to inject accountability and improve staff morale, it appears there is no positive change in the way uniformed officers approach their duty.

The culture of putting self before the public is yet to be rooted out and it makes a mockery of all efforts to reform and rehabilitate the service.

Taxpayers expect the police to put public interest first, but the perception is that this is yet to happen because the uniformed officers have put the pursuit of personal gain ahead of the national good.

This is partly the reason problems such as insecurity persist — there is a perception that the police as an institution is not committed to creating a better and safer country for all because individual officers are too busy pursuing personal gain at the expense of wananchi.

Although surveys over the years have shown that the police are viewed as the most corrupt public institution, little has been done to rehabilitate the credibility of its officers.

The ideal of an institution that serves and protects the public has been eroded by the allegations of far-reaching impropriety levelled against police officers.

It is time Kenyans moved from merely protesting against the appetite of the police for bribes to holding each officer accountable, auditing the officers to isolate those whose lifestyles are not compatible with their incomes, and jailing and weeding out those found to have obtained their wealth corruptly.