Nairobi governor Johnson Sakaja has backtracked on his earlier order to Nairobi County enforcement officers to arrest those who film them in their course of their duty.
Instead, said he is only opposed to those obstructing seamless execution of duty by his officers.
This comes in the backdrop of mixed reactions the governor’s illegal order had attracted from Nairobians who accused the county askaris of extortion, arbitrary arrests and harassment.
Sakaja stated that obstruction of the officers while performing their duties is what he condems adding that recording increases accountability.
“There is no problem with recording. The only issue is obstructing them while performing their duties.It leads to increased accountability. You can even shoot a movie if you want. What we will not accept is obstructing them or inciting the public to turn against them as they perform their duties.” Sakaja stated yesterday during the state of the county address at the Nairobi County Assembly.
He revealed that the county is in the process of securing body cameras for the inspectorate officers to avoid telling of stories one sided.
According to Sakaja, the clips recorded by Nairobians and posted on social media do not tell the whole story about enforcement officers, leading to biased perceptions.
“Obstruction of government officers fulfilling their mandate is a crime punishable by law and will be dealt with firmly. Part of the proposals we have is to introduce the use of body cameras on our officers so that the whole story can always be seen. When somebody takes a half a minute clip and blasts it on social media always half of the story is told. Let us have the full story.” He said.
This comes a few days after the city administrator ordered the arrest those who film them while executing their arrests across the city.
Sakaja had said that those filming obstruct the officers from enforcing justice.
The City governor said the people who record the inspectorates do it for sensationalizing and clout chasing.
“Arrest those who record while you’re making arrests. A few people do it for clout chasing and sensationalizing. Order must be maintained because that is obstruction of justice. Do the right thing and your work because they also do not record police officers.” Sakaja previously ordered.
While making the order, Sakaja admitted that some of the inspectorates do injustice to Nairobians adding that he will support those who observe the laws.
“There might be elements giving Kanjo’s a bad name but know that if you are doing the right thing, as the governor, I am with you.” He said.
When questioned about the impact of his directive, Sakaja said that he had no issue with the recording but the obstruction while recording is what he has a problem with.
Last year October, Sakaja apologized to street vendors harassed by Kanjos compensating them with Sh 10,000 each for the loss incurred during the operation which saw several lost valuables.
At that time, Sakaja indicated that the destruction of the goods of the hawkers was an effort to sabotage his administration, which he said has enjoyed a cordial relationship with the vendors.
The city boss had indicated that the vendors did not deserve such treatment, even though some of them had not met all the legal requirements to operate in the city.
He added that despite the new directive, the relationship between his administration and hawkers remains good, and the incidences of injuries like it was before the 2022 elections have greatly reduced.
“Our relationship remains mostly impeccable save for one or two incidents. Compare with pre Aug 2022. Running battles daily. Injuries on officers and hawkers etc. Has it ever happened again?” Governor Sakaja told The Informer Media Group.