Plain clothes City Inspectorate officers force a man into a Nairobi County Council vehicle on Mfangano Street in Nairobi on July 16, 2019.
A Nairobi County Assembly committee has expressed concern over the ruthlessness with which City Inspectorate officers, commonly known as kanjos, are enforcing bylaws, at times physically assaulting residents accused of breaking the law.
Members of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee (JLAC) have questioned why more than 700 recruits – who are yet to graduate – were unceremoniously released into the streets as interns last year.
The plainclothes officers, who move around in groups, descend on victims mercilessly without identifying themselves.
During a sitting on Monday, the committee, which is chaired by Mugumuini MCA Jared Akama, was learned that the recruits are causing mayhem in the city, harassing and arresting traders and motorists in the name of enforcing the law.
“We must understand how they are getting handcuffs, because if not stopped, tomorrow they will be having pistols. If they can get handcuffs, [what’s to stop them from] getting pistols? Or they can even start to enforce using pangas,” Mr Akama said.
Recently, a video emerged showing about eight non-uniformed officials accosting a member of the public for an unknown crime, and roughing him up in a Nairobi street.
Mr Akama also said that complaints have been made to the Assembly regarding the inspectorate department, where its officers are enforcing the law without uniforms, and some are even covering their faces while doing so.
A Nairobi County Council vehicle loaded with hawkers' merchadise is parked on the pavement on Kenyatta Avenue in Nairobi on May 17, 2019.
The committee issued an order to return the recruits to their training camp at Dagoretti South and called upon the leadership to restore order and sanity to the department.
“We are cultivating a city militia… The buck stops with the person in charge. Number one, they be returned to the camp. Number two, no arrest without uniform,” Mr Akama said.
The chairperson also started that there is a crisis of civilians pretending to enforce city laws. “Nowadays there is a gang going to the market harassing people. We don’t know whether they are our officers.”
During the session, the committee agreed to summon the County Executive Committee member in charge of Finance, Charles Kerich, and Chief Officer for Finance Asha Abdi, to respond to the matter of uniforms.
Last year, when the Acting Chief Officer of the Inspectorate Eva Wangechi Wairiuko appeared before the same committee, she said that the county was in financial crisis and that the money that had been allocated to buy uniforms and facilitate the graduation of new recruits was diverted to a different sector.
While appearing before the committee, a hawker in the CBD who was recently assaulted by inspectorate officers, said that the people who mishandled her are new and some were covering their faces.
“I would urge them to be in uniform and not to cover their faces while on duty,” she said.
There has been growing concern about the increasing number of inspectorate officers walking around the city in groups of up to seven, some in uniform and some in plain clothes.
This latest development contradicts the stern warning issued by Governor Johnson Sakaja last year when he met with a group of inspectorate officers and traders.
He stated that all inspectorate officers must wear uniforms while executing their duties and added that his office was in the process of acquiring body cameras.
However, inspectorate officers are still operating without uniforms and without name tags, and the issue of body cameras has been dropped.
According to the governor, these changes were intended to minimise conflict between traders and his officers.
The committee has ordered the return of the recruits to their training camp at Dagoretti South, and has called upon the leadership to restore order and sanity to the inspectorate department.
