How police trap motorists into paying bribeshttps://www.the-star.co....sts-into-paying-bribes/
Sorting this problem is very easy. Parliament should pass laws to
1. Decriminalise minor traffic offences to fine status that does not involve the courts. And make payments of those fines easy..via mpesa etc. With the incoming Huduma Card..this should be easy to do. The officer gets the Huduma number, writes a ticket and at the end of the day the police station uploads the fine onto a traffic fines portal (via ecitizen) that the motorist can pay. If the motorist does not pay, then an arrest warrant can be issued.
2. Restrict cash bail offences strictly to Driving Under the Influence and extremely reckless driving.
3. By law, every officer MUST issue a traffic ticket clearly stating the offence and fine thereof, to the motorist. No ticket issued means no offence committed.
4. Spell out clearly and publish widely the fines schedule for different offences. E.g. Speeding 10kph above the speed limit attracts a fine of 1k, 20kph above - 1.5k, overataking over a continuous yellow line - 500 bob..etc
5. Make arresting a motorist for a fineable offence that does not attract cash bail a serious criminal offence for a Police officer with minimum fine of 100k, 2 years in jail or BOTH.
6. Declare it illegal and a criminal offence for a police officer to enter any civilian's car and force them to drive the police officer to the station.
But will the cartels who make millions daily out of motorists agree to this?
Age and family mellows us all over time