Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Gladys Boss Shollei on Monday, November 7, proposed that police officers in the country should start wearing body cameras to tame rampant corruption.
Appearing on TV, the lawmaker argued that the body-cam would enhance transparency and accountability within the service.
The Usian Gishu Woman representative, while discussing the war on graft by the Judiciary, claimed that some remandees are denied justice due to lack of apt officers and end up giving bribes just to be allowed a hearing in court.
"Police officers bring remandees to the court from time to time and sometimes you find that they don't bring them on time and the cases cannot proceed so you find remandees having to bribe police officers so that they can be taken to court," she said.
"That can be cured by making sure police officers wear body cameras so that we can see what they are doing every time they interact with the public. That is the direction we should be going."
However, speaking to Kenyans.co.ke security expert George Musamali differed with the Member of Parliament on body cams taming corruption.
"Body cams cannot help stop graft but can help gauge the performance of the police, to see whether they are following and applying the law," he stated.
He further added that the body cams would be additional checks on officers e.g during patrols and when arresting civilians.
"Our officers can have body cams on them to prevent them from conducting extra-judicial killings or arresting innocent people during patrols. It's the right way to go," he affirmed.
The vocal MP further expressed confidence that the Judiciary is on the right trajectory to combating corruption, making a raft of recommendations.
She added that stumping out graft within the Judiciary has to be a continuous process and many systems will have to be put in place.
Digitizing information at the registry and introducing CCTV cameras were among the proposals the Uasin Gishu MP hoped to be actualized.
