All 1,209 police stations to get CCTV as Gov't targets full rollout in two years
The move comes days after IPOA revealed that CCTV footage at Central Police Station was tampered with on the night Albert Ojwang died in custody.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has directed that all 1,209 police stations across Kenya must be equipped with CCTV surveillance systems within the next two years to enhance transparency and accountability.
“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,” Murkomen said on Monday.
Each CCTV system will be placed under the custody of the Officer Commanding Station (OCS), who will be held accountable for its proper functioning.
Murkomen added that any faults must be reported within one hour and that all systems will have an external back-up.
“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. 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 said while addressing the media at the Office of the President, Nairobi.
Murkomen also announced that the government is rolling out a digital reporting system to replace manual occurrence books.
“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.
The directive follows revelations by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) 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 June 11, IPOA Deputy Chairperson Ann Wanjiku said, “The key findings: the CCTV systems located at the OCS' office had been interfered with.”
It later emerged that a Nairobi-based technician was paid Ksh3,000 to delete the footage believed to have captured the events at the station during the time Ojwang died.
