×
The Standard Group Plc is a multi-media organization with investments in media platforms spanning newspaper print operations, television, radio broadcasting, digital and online services. The Standard Group is recognized as a leading multi-media house in Kenya with a key influence in matters of national and international interest.
  • Standard Group Plc HQ Office,
  • The Standard Group Center,Mombasa Road.
  • P.O Box 30080-00100,Nairobi, Kenya.
  • Telephone number: 0203222111, 0719012111
  • Email: [email protected]

CCTV men were asleep during Muchai murder

County_Nairobi
muchai
 The Late Kabete MP George Muchai

County employees in charge of the Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras may have been asleep when armed men attacked and killed Kabtete MP George Muchai on February 17.

It has now emerged that no controller was present to alert the police when the assailants attacked the MP, his two bodyguards and driver.

The CCTV control room at City Hall Annexe is said to be manned by four officers who work in two shifts from 6am to 10pm.

The County Assembly Committee for Roads and Transport chaired by MCA Kennedy Oduru has reported that the cameras are unmanned after 10pm until 6am in the morning.

Nairobi Traffic Commandant Edward Mwamburi told The Nairobian that the CCTVs have not been of help to their operations, but City Hall claims that traffic police and marshals  ignore them all the time.

“I am always on the ground, and I can tell you we have not benefited from those CCTVs. We are hoping things will get better when a county committee working on some measures completes its work,” Mwamburi said.

The committee surveyed the CCTV control room five days after the assassination of Muchai. The committee also learnt that the cameras are quite unreliable at night, which raises the question whether the cameras would have given quality images had they captured Muchai’s murder.

The screens in the control centre are also very small, with officers forced to shift between the cameras.

“It becomes difficult to immediately notice an incident on camera which is currently not being projected,” the committee stated.

The cameras installed in late 2013 with a coverage radius of two kilometres cannot fully facilitate the arrest of lawbreakers due to the low quality of images.

“The cameras should be upgraded to capture high quality images,” the team reported.

The World Bank funded the CCTV project to the tune of Sh430 million with the aim of boosting security in the city centre. At the moment however, out of the total of 40 cameras installed, seven are not functional.

The control room officers allegedly fail to report incidents to police officers and traffic marshals on the ground, rendering the entire project futile.

Related Topics


.

Popular this week

.

Latest Articles