The association of Matatu Owners in Migori County has protested the numerous roadblocks mounted along the Isebania-Migori-Kisii route saying they have been turned into a cash-cow for corrupt police officers.
Consequently, the association led by their chairman Mr. Lucas Momanyi has challenged local Police Commander Mr. Mark Wanjala to ensure that only gazetted road blocks were retained along the route whenever necessary unless they were authorized by the higher office in Kisumu as per a directive last year.
Matatu owners and crews claim that the traffic police were a major stumbling block to their business since they force them to part with huge amounts of money every day to bribe their way out of real and imaginary traffic offences.
In some spots along the same highway, they are forced to buy their freedom twice within a distance of two kilometers.
“You will first have to oil the hands of the traffic police and then drive a few kilometers away to treat roadblock officers who will use all manner of inspections of the vehicle to get something from you,” said matatu conductor George Owino.
“We are really being frustrated and fleeced of huge amount of money yearly at this roadblock by the corrupt officers who are ready to take even Sh50 from motorists and boda boda operators for real and trumped up traffic offences brought against them by the officers,” rued Momanyi.
The roadblock officer and to extent the traffic unit is a section of the police force that is believed to have partly contributed to the general rot in the entire force, and which has painted the uniformed men and women as the most corrupt lot in the country.
“The police manning our roads are our friends. Sometimes they bother us much. But generally a Sh50 or Sh100 notes clears things, instead of waiting to be arraigned before the courts’ mean looking judges and magistrates who impose huge fines on us for the traffic offences we make,” said a matatu driver Willis Onyango.
The ever increasing fatal accidents on the country’s roads and highways have been partly blamed on the run-away corruption involving police officers manning our roads.
Immediate former President Uhuru Kenyatta once ordered off the roads their sisters; the National Transport Services Authority (NTSA) that Kenyans accused of raising further corruption stakes on the highways amid a sharp increase in fatal road accidents in the country.
“What these officers are doing on the roads is worse than corruption. It defies beliefs when you watch the officers ask for bribes, flag off a matatu or a bus that drives a few kilometers and kills a big number of passengers in an accident that could have been avoided if the officers were keen on doing their work,” said Pastor John Ogada.
“It would be better for the Government to find a different category of Kenyans to help bring back sanity on our roads since the force we pretend to give responsibility is unclassified,” he added during an interview with KNA in Rongo town.
“They have even become so useless and shameless that nowadays they ask us to buy them newspapers, air time, sodas and offer them and their girlfriends free lifts to and from their unofficial errands,” adds another matatu owner Wycliffe Otieno.
A teacher in Rongo Mr Mahanga Chacha claimed that the traffic and roadblock Police had turned themselves into a syndicate that is tightly run by senior police officers to immorally gain wealth in the country.
“Those officers you see collecting monies from the matatus are just hands’ boys. The real brains behind this cartel are senior pot-bellied officers sitting in the offices down here and in Nairobi who wait for the collections to be done and sent to them,” said Chacha.
He said time had come for the masses to condemn and help put a stop to the vice to save lives on the many country’s roads.
However, senior police officials in Migori and Kenya in general have in many cases played down the accusations against these officers, saying they are “subjective” and not backed up by research on the ground.
Nevertheless, the police force is on record pledging to take action to remedy the situation. Commander Mr. Wanjala said: “We are taking drastic steps to tame corruption on our roads and end the impunity which encourages this phenomenon.”
The directive that County police chiefs would be responsible for any fatal accident in their respective regions gives hope to many that the officers will now work over time to clean the traffic department in their areas of corruption and generally bring sanity back on the roads.
These officers manning the road blocks have sometimes embarrassed the government by openly begging for as little as Sh20 from tough motorists who refuse to bribe them.
They have even invented a polite way of siphoning cash from motorists, a situation that many have termed as more embarrassing to the state than asking for bribery.
Momanyi claimed that the bug of bothersome begging by the officers on the road has irked many people who have been left wondering whether the law enforcement personnel are being paid salaries and allowances like their other counterparts in the Civil Service.
“These officers have adopted a new way of receiving cash from unsuspecting Kenyans by literally begging for water, soda, newspapers and lunch in a polite manner that will leave one parting with Sh100 or more without raising an eye-brow,” he said.
“I have been severally accosted by smiling officers at road blocks who after going through normal scrutiny of knowing whether my vehicle has complied with the necessary traffic regulations would peep through the window and politely ask for water or any other thing without nagging my nerves,” he added.
One police officer in Migori who spoke strictly on condition of anonymity argued that “it is better to offer free gifts to officers at the road blocks out of own volition than being forced to give a bribe for an offense committed. Give with a clean heart when approached and it is needless to view that officer as a beggar after you have parted with some cash or any other thing for the benefit of him or her,” said the source.