Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has issued a directive mandating the installation of CCTV surveillance systems in all police stations across the country.
Speaking on Monday, June 16, Murkomen said all 1,209 police stations will be required to operate fully functional CCTV systems under strict supervision.
“It shall be mandatory to equip police stations with CCTV surveillance to enhance transparency and accountability. All the police stations, currently standing at 1,209, shall have CCTV surveillance within the next two years,” he said.
Murkomen stated that each CCTV setup will be placed under the direct custody of the Officer Commanding Station (OCS) who will be held responsible for its functionality.
“We shall be making proposals to Parliament to enact laws that criminalise tempering with CCTV cameras. The surveillance system shall be in the custody of the Officer Commanding Station (OCS) and the said officer shall be required to ensure that the system is always functional.
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"Instances of fault shall be reported within one hour through the established chain of command, and the system shall have an external back-up system," he added.
At the same time, Murkomen said the government is also rolling out a digital reporting platform to replace the manual occurrence books.
According to the CS, the digital system will serve as a secure and tamper-proof platform to record complaints and police reports.
“We shall roll out a digital reporting system. This is a reform that has been initiated and we are now committed to the digitization of occurrence books to ensure all reported incidences can be traced and be tamper proof,” he stated.
This announcement comes days after investigations by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) revealed that CCTV systems at Central Police Station had been tampered with on the night Albert Ojwang died in police custody.
Speaking in the Senate on Wednesday, June 11, IPOA Deputy Chairperson Ann Wanjiku confirmed that the authority’s investigations had uncovered tampering with the CCTV systems located at the Officer Commanding Station (OCS) office.
“The key findings: the CCTV systems located at the OCS' office had been interfered with,” she said.
It was later revealed that a technician based in Nairobi was paid to delete the CCTV footage from the OCS' office at the station.
In reports that emerged on Friday, June 13, the technician revealed that he was paid Ksh3,000 to delete the footage believed to have captured the events at the station when Ojwang was killed.
