A traffic police officer on Thursday morning fired at Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) detectives during a raid at a roadblock on the Karagita Junction in Naivasha, Nakuru County.
EACC Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Twalib Mbarak, in an address to the media, stated that the anti-graft detectives were conducting a sting operation to arrest officers on their radar for extorting bribes from motorists.
However, when the EACC sleuths arrived at the scene and their intentions became clear, the traffic police officer fired at the detectives in an attempt to evade arrest.
Mbarak pointed out that none of his officers got injured in the process. However, the traffic police officer managed to escape.
By the time of publishing this article, the officer's whereabouts were yet to be established even as EACC collaborated with the National Police Service (NPS) to track him down.
Nonetheless, Mbarak revealed that three other police officers were arrested in the process and brought to EACC's Nairobi headquarters for processing.
The three cops will be arraigned in court after completion of the investigations.
"This morning the EACC managed to have a raid where we arrested three traffic officers who were taking bribes along the road from motorists. One policeman managed to escape.
"He was armed and tried to fire at our officers. Fortunately, there were no injuries but he managed to escape," the EACC boss stated.
Following the incident, EACC has proposed a policy requiring all traffic police at roadblocks to be unarmed unless necessary.
"Our position as EACC, in coordination with the IG, is that traffic police officers should never be armed unless it is extremely necessary," he stated.
On the other hand, he indicated that similar operations will continue especially now that the country is heading to the festive season.
Mbarak highlighted that the anti-graft agency had already earmarked hotspots across the country that will be raided in the coming weeks.
