We can deal smartly with traffic offenders while helping police and the courts

Dr Felix Martin is a British solicitor. He is not an ordinary, boring or flat lawyer.

He was baked with some strange ingredients that led him to get deeply involved in the London entertainment industry.

He holds a law degree from Oxford and a PhD in management from Manchester University.

This makes him a very suitable lecturer in communication and negotiation skills for lawyers, and he has spent the last three summers being such a lecturer here in Kenya.

He is also an avid reader of the Daily Nation. He sent me a write-up that I want to share with you, dear reader. Felix has a good grasp of law. His common sense is also uncommon. He had this to say:

"I’ve got the money on M-pesa, who do I pay to?’ shrieked the blonde mzungu girl fidgeting with her phone. The policeman smiled and asked her to stand in line with the others. "You pay at the back of the Court."

READ: WALUBENGO: What became of the Nairobi traffic cameras?

This scene took place at Kibera Law Courts. The girl had infringed the speed limit by just a few kilometres per hour. My friend, a Kenyan engineer with a strong record of social activism, had jumped a roundabout with no traffic nearby.

Both ended up in a dirty cell at the back of the court alongside hard-core criminals, thieves, rapists and wife-batterers. The girl broke down when she saw the cell, and had to be forced in. My friend shifted towards a small cluster of women for fear of being robbed by the men.

REVENUE FOR THE COURTS

To a foreigner, this scenario seems absurd, says Felix. It brings images of repressive regimes and 19th century poorhouses in Britain. To be dispossessed of your human and civil rights, even the right to pay for a traffic offence, is the stuff of mistaken identities in horror stories.

Yet in Kenya this happens to anyone who refuses to bribe the police. So bribing the police is surely the right, even the moral, thing to do. Would you not, given the chance, pay off your kidnapper?

Traffic offences may well be criminal offences in the book. But unless other people’s lives are put at risk recklessly, they are in nature very different from what people ordinarily call "crime" — the real crime that undermines the fabric of civil society — drug dealing, racketeering, tax crime, violence or murder.

Traffic offences are a major source of revenue for the court, and the collection of bribes supplements the paltry salaries of some unscrupulous officers. 

All in all, the present system serves two positive and worthwhile purposes. Yet this does not mean there are no better alternatives.

PLEAD GUILTY BY POST

If fixed fines could be set for standard offences, the police could impose them there and then and they could be paid off through M-Pesa there and then. Alternatively, where the offender’s address is traceable (through a simple check of the licence against official records), a fine could be posted to them, to be paid within a set number of days.

In the case of variable fines, a posted letter should offer the possibility of pleading guilty by post, indicating any mitigating circumstances. The magistrate would then decide the fine based on the response and, by post, communicate the amount payable.

Where the offender wishes to plead not guilty, or if the address is not traceable, he would be required to attend court. Failure to answer, to pay on time or to attend court would be contempt of court, with serious consequences.

RESPECT FOR POLICE

The system would be reinforced by enabling the police to access individual drivers’ records of unpaid fines. Communication by text message rather than mail may also be an option in all these cases.  

These ideas, which are relatively easy to implement, may involve some initial investment and require a gradual introduction. In the end, they would save the courts clutter and the police time, enabling them to focus on solving high-priority crimes.

Civil rights would improve, resulting in greater respect for the police and the courts. It might also lead to a substantial increase in fine collections, if bribery can be reined in.

To achieve this, a material percentage of fine collections should go directly to increasing officers’ salaries. As their pride in being servants of the common good increases, so will their temptation to demand bribes decrease. 

ENGINES OF EFFICIENCY

In addition, the size of fines must also be moderated since greed undermines people’s respect for government and their willingness to respond with honesty.

Felix ends his observations by writing: simplicity, transparency and fairness are the engines of efficiency and success.

I couldn't agree more with Felix. Several years ago, in a conversation with Mutula Kilonzo, then Minister for Justice, I suggested he should spearhead a change in the traffic laws.

We agreed that the power to arrest any offender would always trigger bribery. Sadly, he was soon moved to the Ministry of Education and the project never materialized.

I believe Dr Felix Martin has given us food for thought, and a good project for the Law Reform Commission to undertake as soon as possible.

Dr Franceschi is the dean of Strathmore Law School. [email protected]  Twitter: @lgfranceschi