Spare no one on sirens, Arachi orders

Kenya: Acting Inspector General of Police Samuel Arachi has directed police to enforce the law on sirens and strobe lights without fear and favour.

Mr Arachi said his office had received complaints that police were not making arrests or impounding unauthorised vehicles fitted with the gadgets.

He said only ambulances, police, fire engines, the President and Deputy President's cars are allowed to have the sirens and strobe lights.

"Even if its is a Cabinet secretary, governor or any other official out of the authorised ones, let them be grounded. Actually, they should lead by good example," he said.

However, most of these vehicles are usually accompanied by police chase cars and it will be difficult for traffic personnel or any other police officer to detain them.

Arachi issued the directive a week after Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery had ordered the removal of the gadgets from unauthorised cars.

He made the order following growing complaints from the public over the misuse of the sirens by most VIPs.

The Traffic Act allows only the President, police vehicles, ambulances and fire engines to have a right of way and sirens.

But some VIPs have been fitting their vehicles with sirens, which they use to gain the right of way.

Funeral homes have also been singled out as among those guilty of misusing the sirens.

The police boss made the remarks at the Loresho Police College, Nairobi, when he opened the Strategic Leadership Command Programme (SLCP) for senior officers in the National Police Service (NPS).

British High Commissioner Christian Turner hailed the opening of the programme as a landmark step in the development of a new generation of police leaders.

The programme has been developed by NPS in partnership with Kenyatta University and the UK's Bramshill College of Policing.

It will combine strategic policing skills training with a diploma and Masters degree in Leadership and Security Management.

Candidates will also undergo strategic leadership training, based on the UK's International Strategic Leadership Programme (ISLP), which delivers contemporary concepts of best practice in policing from around the world.

"The establishment of SLCP is a hugely significant step in the development of a new generation of Kenyan police leaders," said Dr Turner.