Corrupt police biggest threat to nation

A few months ago, a friend who runs a bar and restaurant business in Nairobi’s Eastlands narrated to me a story that could have passed as ‘bar talk’ were it not for the dangerous ramifications it could have on a larger scale.

He was having a drink with five friends at his premises, an estate hangout where everybody knows everyone else, when two men walked in and took what looked like strategic positions.

Two months earlier, armed gangsters had raided the bar, leaving my friend a few hundred-thousand shillings poorer and a number of his customers injured and without their mobile phones.

The attackers had spent some hours at the bar, posing as customers. So, when my friend and his company noticed what the police refer to as “suspicious characters”, their natural reaction was to inform the security agents. After a few minutes of hushed consultations at his table, he sneaked out and walked to the neighbouring police post, a kilometre away, to report the “security threat”.

But that turned out to be a very expensive mistake.

The officers demanded that my friend hire a taxi to ferry them to the bar. He complied, and he and four officers squeezed into the five-seater car.

On arrival at the bar, the officers had a brief chat with the suspicious guests. They then turned the heat on the bar owner and his friends with wild accusations — from giving false information to security officers to making alarming statements and wasting precious police time.

What was supposed to be a discrete report was turned into massive drama. Soon, the officers summoned a police van that arrived in a record five minutes and my friend, his companions and other customers who expressed sympathy for them were hauled into it. They were driven to the police post and tossed into its tiny smelly cell. The officers then started making demands for money, with the threat of arraignment.

DESPERATE CALLS

It was a Friday night; so, the earliest they could be presented in court was on Monday — some two long days and nights away. My friend made several desperate fundraising calls and, two hours later, they were released after parting with Sh20,000. He swore never to report any incident to the police ever again.

Last weekend, another friend in the same neighbourhood had an accident with his car. By the time he was finished with the police, whom he had called, and got an abstract, he was Sh3,000 poorer. He says he would rather had driven on and repaired his car than being the good citizen and calling the police!

On Monday, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) released the results of a survey that indicated that the number of Kenyans paying a bribe to get services had risen over the past year. It also indicated, for the umpteenth time, that the Interior ministry, the parent ministry of security agencies, is the most corrupt institution in the country.

No news there, really. What should worry us, however, is the survey’s revelation that Kenyans, like my two friends, are required to pay a bribe to make a report! According to the survey, Kenyans paid an average of Sh2,737 to report a crime or write a statement.

This is a serious threat to national security, which should be urgently addressed and with more seriousness than just a mention in a survey report.

That, as the countrywide survey established, one is expected to have money in the pocket to inform the police of a potential case of insecurity is more dangerous than the cause of that insecurity itself.

In a country where more than 60 percent of the population survives on less than Sh92 a day, it means that, to afford reporting a crime, most Kenyans will have to save everything they earn for 30 days. It means that more than 27 million Kenyans will not report threats to national security to the authorities. It means that the fight against crime is lost before it even begins.

Small wonder, then, that terrorist organisations find it easy to penetrate and reside among us.

That the country’s intelligence agencies and other anti-terrorism units do a great job countering merchants of death within and without our borders is not in doubt.

But their work is not made any easier by police officers — naturally, the first port of call for civilians in case of danger — when they demand an illegal payment to receive information.

As President Uhuru Kenyatta and the EACC continue with the renewed onslaught against grand corruption, special attention should be given to the deceptively minor incidents of graft perpetrated by a few but widely situated police officers. It is the greatest threat to the country’s existence.

Mr Mugwang’a, a communications consultant, is a former crime and security reporter. [email protected]. @mykeysoul