The sustained calls by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission CEO for eradication of corruption at the traffic department sound genuine.
They could also be an expression of the frustration that the agency is facing in an attempt to stamp its authority in all corruption-riddled government institutions.
In directing all its energy on traffic police officers, the EACC is unknowingly whitewashing senior commanders by indicting junior officers manning roadblocks where many believe that bribes change hands.
CEO Twalib Mbarak needs to apply intelligence in fighting graft and not stand before cameras issuing ultimatums to faceless Kenyans who seem unconcerned by his inability to convince Kenyans that his agency has the capacity of nailing the graft dragon.
In the police service, it is openly known that the dynamics of corruption evolve daily.
The government has announced it will strictly follow up on the policy of officers not staying in one station for more than three years. This is fair but the question in many officers' minds is, 'will all animals be equal, or some will be more equal than others?'
Currently, there are officers in their 10th year in North Rift and Northeastern while others are retiring in one station in Nairobi. A proper audit and digitisation of personnel records should be in place for the policy to work.
Until then, senior police commanders with sons and daughters in the service will continue manipulating policies to victimise officers without godfathers as their own children and relatives work unperturbed.
The EACC, IPOA, KNCHR, Commission on Administration of Justice and Parliament should not abandon the police service to politicians who have vested interests and certainly believe that officers are trained to withstand insults, condemnation and belittling due to the assumption that everyone in the service attained D+ and therefore is incapable of comprehending his/her job entitlement.
Mbarak must clinically study the corruption in the whole police service, point out to the government the salient points to act on and onlt then will his arrest of traffic police officers make sense.
Few people in public service abhor corruption and abuse of human rights more than police officers who have seen the blanket condemnation and punishment by both the public and government for ills committed by a few.