Reform the entire criminal justice system

Following first-hand experience of deplorable conditions of police cells in Kenya, a majority of people hope that the MPs from across the divide will spearhead plans to reform the entire criminal justice system in Kenya.

A police cell must have a bed for the person held and a toilet. It must have adequate light and air.

The police are able to extort from people for fear of these cells and justice is defeated from this point.

For people to have a fighting chance against police extortion, the cells and prisons must be clean and hygienic. It would mean the Government floating tenders to have the private sector clean, wash and fumigate the cells and prisons.

Today, vermin like lice and bedbugs have ready habitation in our prisons and police cells. Which self-respecting Government does this to its people?

I have been writing severally that Kenya needs to recruit the Inspector General (IG) of Police internationally and float a sovereign bond to raise the hundreds of billions required to fully reform Kenya’s criminal justice system, including police and prisons.

Reforms would include academic qualifications, isolation from political class, building best practice facilities for police. This might require injection of may be Sh200-300 billion from floatation of a ring-fenced sovereign bond like a diaspora bond.

The new IG would be recruited on the basis of best reform credentials. So the advertisement for this position would, for example, say that the short-listed persons applying for this job would be financed to come and study the Kenyan security system for two to three months then give their version of reforms through a tender.

I remember how the design of Thika superhighway was done. Short-listed applicants were financed to come and study the route and submit their designs. The best design was then announced by the financing panel that consisted of the Government and African Development Bank (AfDB) of Tunis.

Kenya stands a snowball’s chance in hell to slay the dragon of corruption with a police force more corrupt than everybody else. It is however not in doubt any more that the current political class prefers this kind of ‘enforcement agency’ because they can get away with virtually anything.