Lawyer accuses traffic officers of using speed guns to extort money from motorists

A speed gun shows a car and the speed it is moving at taken on 30th September 2014. [PHOTO: WILBERFORCE OKWIRI]

A lawyer has accused traffic officers of using speed guns to extort money from motorists.  

Joe Gathungu submitted that only those who refuse to bribe the officers are prosecuted, over claims of speeding and other traffic offences.

He told Kerugoya Resident Magistrate Yusuf Baraza that motorists were at times detained at roadblocks, for hours, to intimidate them into paying bribes.

Gathungu was cross-examining Sergeant James Nasio during a speeding case against Embu Kenya National Union of Teachers secretary John Gitari.

Gitari was charged with disregarding the 100km per hour speed limit on November 2 last year at Kiangai on the Karatina-Kagumo road, and driving at 105km per hour.

Prosecutor Miriam Mwaura had told the court the case should be terminated since data the speed gun captured had been erased.

Gitari objected to the application and demanded a full hearing.

Police Constable Mohamed Dhidha, who had been assigned the speed gun, told the court the data was deleted when the machine was taken to Nairobi for calibration.

The lawyer said the charges against his client were malicious and asked that the case be dismissed. He eventually got his wish when the magistrate threw the case out.