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MPs want cops posted to weighbridges for a year

House Transport Committee chairman Maina Kamanda said corruption at the facilities had become so rampant that officers would rather resign or move to court to challenge their relocation/FILE

House Transport Committee chairman Maina Kamanda said corruption at the facilities had become so rampant that officers would rather resign or move to court to challenge their relocation/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 10 – Members of Parliament want police officers deployed to man weighbridges on major highways to serve for a year then get transferred to other stations.

House Transport Committee chairman Maina Kamanda said corruption at the facilities had become so rampant that officers would rather resign or move to court to challenge their relocation.

“The committee is recommending that maybe a police officer should remain at a weighbridge for not more than one year.”

“We have also released as a committee that even members of this House in a way they are not living to the law they are making in this House you saw how sometimes back some officers were harassed,” he said in reference to an incident where Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter and Nominated MP Sonia Birdi stormed the Gilgil Weighbridge and were filmed threatening staff.

READ: Keter pushing weight at Gilgil weighbridge: DPP steps in

Long distance truck drivers had petition the National Assembly complaining of harassment from the officers.

In their contribution to the petition, MPs supported the committee and called on the Executive to implement the recommendations of the House.

National Security and Administration Chairman Asman Kamama called for the privatisation of the weighbridge.

“There is nobody called traffic police under law because towards the end of the last House we abolished it. In fact from the floor of this House I would ask Kenyans to ignore them. It is just a corruption ring in the police department,” Minority Leader Jakoyo Midiwo said.

These have become dens of corruption, the Judiciary should not be entertaining every application and granting injunctions, that is surely indiscipline on the part of the Judiciary itself, that is misuse and abuse of power that they have been granted, they cannot use it to stop lawful instructions which have been given to officers,” Ainabkoi MP Samuel Chepkong’a said.

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A recently published report by the Ethic and Anti-Corruption Commission shows police constable based at the Mlolongo Weighbridge received Sh600,000 a month on average through his M-PESA account.

The dossier indicates that Chief Inspectors of Police who served as the officers in charge of the Mariakani and Mlolongo police stations received in their M-PESA accounts, money amounting to Sh225,000 and Sh276,120 on average every month.

Vehicles passing through the weighbridges are supposed to be checked for overloading and flouting the axle load rules stipulated by the Kenya National Highway Authority under the Kenya Roads Act, 2007.

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