Untrained police officers carrying out traffic control jobs have been ordered out of the roads.
They must now get back to their stations and be assigned general duty, which means chasing after burglars, pickpockets, mobile phone thieves and armed robbers.
But it must baffle any right-thinking Kenyan how hordes of untrained police officers got traffic control work in the first place. No wonder traffic control in cities and the countryside is in shambles.
It must be obvious that the moral decadence synonymous with the incorrigibly rotten traffic unit is to blame. The free cash is so tempting hardly any Kenyan police officer can resist the temptation.
They no longer feel a sense of embarrassment taking a bribe. They demand it.
The timing of the new order will be welcome to many long-suffering and hard-working Kenyans, many of whom will be heading to their villages for Christmas.
They will leave their urban homes locked but unsafe because of opportunistic burglars dying to lay their hands on household goods or even cash.
We hope that after Christmas the untrained officers will not sneak back to the roads to continue where they left off.
Quote of the Day: “No decent career was ever founded on a public.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The American author died on December 21, 1940.
