What to do when a police officer demands bribe to take action on defilement or rape incident

By  Moraa Obiria

Senior Gender Journalist

What you need to know:

• Victims asked to pay bribes to report crimes can lodge complaints with the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority or the National Police Service Internal Affairs Unit.
• Fida-Kenya legal counsel Brenda Yambo explains how complainants can document alleged bribery, preserve supporting evidence and seek investigations into police misconduct.

A video recently circulated online showing a woman in Gatanga, Murang’a County, claiming that a police officer demanded Sh10,000 when she went to report a defilement case involving her sister. So, what can someone do when a police officer demands a bribe before taking action?

Brenda Yambo, senior legal counsel at the Federation of Women Lawyers-Kenya (Fida-Kenya), says a person can report such as misconduct to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (Ipoa), or the Internal Affairs Unit of the National Police Service.

She explains that the EACC is mandated to investigate bribery under the Bribery Act, while Ipoa and the Internal Affairs Unit can investigate allegations of police misconduct. “Demanding a bribe raises questions about police professionalism and discipline, as well as possible human rights violations,” she says.

However, proving that a police officer solicited a bribe can be difficult when the incident happened between the officer and the complainant without a witness, she says. “When you are reporting this, you do not have direct evidence. What you're doing is you're giving a detailed account of what transpired, and then you let the relevant authorities assess and investigate the allegation,” she says.

Information needed

Brenda advises complainants to give a detailed account of what happened, including the date and location of the incident, the officer involved, the amount demanded and the circumstances under which the demand was made.

Where possible, having a record showing that you visited the police station to report the underlying offence can also help establish your presence at the station on a particular date, she says. She adds that an Occurrence Book number or other documentation relating to the initial report may help support the account.

Afterwards, she says, the complainant should then allow the relevant authorities to investigate the allegation and assess whether the available evidence supports further action.

Secret recording

Brenda says evidence can make it easier for investigators to follow up on a bribery allegation. She cites M-Pesa messages showing a transfer of money to the officer and screenshots of conversations as examples of evidence that could help.

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage may also provide corroborative evidence by confirming that a complainant was at a police station and interacted with an officer at a particular time, she says. “The CCTV is also difficult because it does not have audio. So how then do you establish that the actual words were spoken? Or how do you prove that this police officer actually solicited for a bribe?” she says.

She also cautions against assuming that secretly recording the officer is a straightforward solution. The recording, she says, raises questions about data protection and privacy. “The threshold for using that evidence will also be in question. You did n0t have the consent of this person to record,” she says.

However, hope is not lost. She says an aggrieved individual can seek support through Fida‑Kenya, which can write to the relevant station to request information and follow up on the matter.