GSU may replace traffic cops, says Iteere

Saturday, 05 March 2011 00:05 BY STAR REPORTER

HARD AT WORK: A traffic policeman

POLICE Commissioner Mathew Iteere is considering deploying General Service Unit personnel to control traffic in the country, the Star has established.

Iteere has reportedly threatened to disband the traffic police department and reconstitute it with GSU officers. Iteere, meeting provincial police chiefs and base commanders at the Police Pavilion early this week, vowed to sack any police officer found engaging in corruption because “such officers are giving the force a bad name”.

The commissioner singled out traffic police who he said were an "embarrassment" and partly responsible for the chaos on Kenyan roads. There has been a sharp increase in road accidents recently as the Michuki rules continue to be flouted with impunity. The rules were introduced several years ago to bring sanity to the public transport sector.

One rule was that all matatus be fitted with speed governors but many operators have tampered with the governors so they can go faster than the 80 kilometer per hour speed limit. “The Commissioner read to the riot act to us and told us that he will disband the current traffic department and create a new one which will be made up of GSU officers,” said a senior police officer who attended the meeting.

Iteere was incensed that traffic policemen collecting bribes instead of enforcing traffic rules. “He was very angry and told us that we will know within a month whether we will continue to monitor human beings and their cars on the road, or we will be deployed to areas where only cattle and goats use the roads,” said one Nairobi based traffic base commanders.

Iteere has already called for review the personnel files of virtually all traffic police. "He wants to know the status of each traffic policeman, how long they have served in their current stations and other details before deciding what action to take,’’ said an officer at Police Headquarters.

During the meeting, Iteere raised concerns about where junior policemen were getting the money to buy large cars on their modest salaries. "He was very concerned about how some of his juniors had acquired fuel guzzlers and were able to maintain them with their small salaries. He asked why we did not use the official police cars to come to the meeting. When we finished, most of us literally sneaked into our cars and drove away hoping that he will not see the cars we were using,” a senior police officer based in Rift Valley said. If Iteere carries through his threat, it will not be the first time the GSU will be deployed to perform duties performed by regular police.

In 2004, former Police Commissioner Major-General Hussein Ali deployed more than 30 GSU and Anti-Stock Theft Unit officers to replace police bosses in police stations where he suspected criminals had compromised the regular police.

Iteere, who was formerly the Presidential Escort boss, was appointed in September 2009. He has ordered traffic police officers countrywide to rigorously enforce the Michuki rules. "There are no two ways about—the rules must be observed. I have directed the traffic police to be tough on this one. We will not sit back and watch as they (matatus) flout existing laws,’’ Iteere reportedly said.

The Commissioner accused the traffic police of not using the autonomy he had granted them to effectively deal with the mess on Kenyan roads.

Prior to his tenure, traffic policemen were under the command of the officers in charge of police stations, police divisions or provincial police bosses. However, since September 2009, they have been directly answerable to the traffic commanders in the hierarchy.

The GSU has been in existence since 1948 and comprises highly trained policemen and special forces whose mission is to deal with situations affecting internal security in the country.

The GSU fought in the 1961 civil unrest in Zanzibar, the 1963 - 1969 Shifta War, the Mau Mau war for independence and the 1982 Kenyan coup.

During the 1990s, the GSU were deployed in central Kenya to quell popular unrest and demonstrations against the Moi government. At the Saba Saba Day rally in 1990 when 1990 in which 30 people died and hundreds of others were injured.

Wikipedia says the GSU has 5,000 paramilitary troops, of which 2,000 are the Israeli trained 'Recce group'.