President William Ruto has reignited discussions on the urgent need to digitise the physical records of the National Police Service, Kenya Prisons, and the National Youth Service.
Ruto noted that modernising the systems is crucial for enhancing efficiency, transparency, and accountability within these institutions.
Speaking at State House on Wednesday when he officially launched the Strategic Framework for Implementing Reforms in the three services, Ruto specifically focused on the police Occurrence Book (OB), which he said should be digitised.
“The legendary OB must be in digital form so that if a Kenyan has been booked for whatever reason, it must be documented in a manner that cannot be tampered with,” he said.
He said he was aware of the process that was started to digitise this, among other services.
“This is an exercise that I want to see completed in the shortest time possible so that we can have much more predictability,” he said.
Ruto also announced plans to onboard the police service in the automation process of payment of instant fines at the police stations for accountability purposes.
According to the Head of State, the culture of dealing with cash must stop immediately, noting the entire government would soon fully go cashless.
“I know there is resistance in some quarters, but we will make sure that we can drive reforms and efficiency in this sector. We have leveraged technology to make sure have better outcomes in the management of our security,” he stated.
The government launched the digitisation of the police service management information system in 2019.
The process did not, however, yield the needed fruits.
Early this year, agencies under the National Council on the Administration of Justice (NCAJ) agreed to support the National Police Service to digitise its operations to enhance efficiency in the justice sector.
Among the processes earmarked for digitisation are the Occurrence Book at police stations, charge sheets, cash bail records, and the operationalisation of instant traffic fines.
Ruto at the same time stated that there is current legislation before the parliament that has been proposed as part of the reform process.
He encouraged the implementing teams to expedite the formulation of the policies that have been worked on “so that we can engage parliament in the shortest time possible.”
