• Big fish frequent the same cells.
• OB should be digitised.
Image: HEZRON NJOROGE
When the boys in blue come calling, Kenyans avoid by all means not to be a guest in the cells of the police stations.
The reason is that in this day and age, people still use buckets as toilets in Kenyan cells.
Interestingly, the people who would have made changes to the cells frequent the cells even more than regular wananchi. Ask senator Cleopas Malala and former CS Rashid Echesa who recently spent the weekend in them.
Let the new IG Hillary Mutyambai look for more funding in the 2019-20 budget to refurbish police stations. Let him visit Central and Makupa police stations and see how the policemen and women work in stressful conditions.
Once, a suspect was reported to have jumped from the first floor of the police station despite the policeman holding his shirt.
The policeman was left holding the shirt. Nothing has changed at Central police in 20 years except its entrance.
There are no working fans, stairs are wooden, offices lack basic necessities and corridors have been converted into offices due to the shortage of space. Makupa police station offices are tiny and there is no privacy serving the public.
Let the government allocate funds or even call the community to help refurbish the stations. You never know who will visit.
The occurrence book should also be digitalised to make police stations tandem with the current technology.
This will allow for a person to make a report and get a message on their phone as opposed to the current system where you keep the OB number on a piece of paper.
This way also, it will be easier to track similar reported cases and subsequently make ease tracking of suspects.
In this century, it is sad that police stations look like the most neglected public spaces.