“The prospect that we shall be able to leverage technology to build a more robust security response for our citizens is a key deliverable for my government,” President Uhuru Kenyatta said
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 25 – The first phase of the National Security Surveillance, Communication and Control System for Nairobi and Mombasa is now under the National Police Service after formal hand-over at the weekend.
At least 1,800 high-powered CCTV cameras were rolled out in this stage along with an Integrated Command, Control and Communications Centre (iC3) and an emergency response contact centre that is equipped to receive up to 25,000 calls per day.
Some 7,600 modern communication devices have been handed over to the National Police Service while over 3,000 officers have been trained to build deeper capacity for the next generation of security enforcement in Kenya.
“The prospect that we shall be able to leverage technology to build a more robust security response for our citizens is a key deliverable for my government,” President Uhuru Kenyatta said when he oversaw the hand-over at the National Police Service headquarters.
“Our response is set to be improved with the new technology that is being adopted in the police service…everything is set to improve,” the officer told Capital FM News.
The new system will be controlled from the Jogoo House command centre from where all police officers can be tracked while undertaking their duties.
A total of 7,600 police officers can be served at a go but it will be scaled up to 50,000 officers later on.
The new system is being rolled out by Safaricom in a Sh15 billion tender.
The system uses three high definition cameras; infra-red camera, box camera and dome cameras.
The dome camera can cover a 360 degree area while the infra-red camera will have ability to capture images in low light areas.
Police will easily track lost vehicles or one which has been used to commit crime due to number plate recognition.
Police are just required to feed the system with the car details and every time it passes an area fitted with the cameras, an alert will go to the command system.
Under the new system there will be clusters formed in which junior officers can address their boss. Every member of the cluster is set to get any ongoing communication.
As crime continues getting sophisticated, technology remains key a fact that President Kenyatta admits saying this is just a wider digitization plan of the police service which will be extended to record keeping.
Other than the Nairobi Central Business District, the CCTV cameras have been fitted along major high ways like the Thika Superhighway at strategic positions.
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