Inspector General of Police Lemmy Kajoba says the Zambia Police needs to change the narrative in the public sphere that it is one of the most corrupt government institutions.
Mr. Kajoba says the President has been consistent in his pronouncements that his government will take “a zero tolerance” approach to corruption and has cautioned police officers to avoid engaging themselves in acts of corruption in their discharge of duty.
The inspector general reminded all police officers of the core values of integrity, transparency, patriotism, excellency and accountability, which are enshrined in the institutional code of ethics, to promote the institution’s professional aspirations for improved performance.
“It is in the public sphere that the Zambia Police Service is perceived to be one of the most corrupt government intuitions,” he said.
“We therefore, need to change this narrative through transformation of individual attitude towards work and adopt the route of professionalism, especially that ours is a law enforcement agency,” he stated.
Mr. Kajoba highlighted the traffic section, security checkpoints and inquiries offices as areas of concern when it comes to corruption in the Zambia Police Service.
He spelt out interim measures that have been put in place to redeem the name of the police Service and restore public confidence in the institution.
“My command will deploy secret agents in various points of duty with the aim of monitoring compliance to this directive,” Mr Kajoba said.
“All erring officers will meet stern action” he emphasised.
Meanwhile, the IG has urged members of the public to also take part in stamping out corruption in the country by avoiding bribing officers whenever they come in conflict with the law.
He has further appealed to members of the public to report any officer found indulging in corrupt practices to their supervisors or institutions mandated to deal with corruption such as the Anti-corruption commission.
This is contained in a statement issued to the media in yesterday, by Inspector General of Police Lemmy Kajoba.
His picture alone suggests he is not good enough. Alpine someone else.
I am a phd holder
Thanks
BB2014,2016
Citizens can’t avoid bribing police officers. I’m afraid the Inspector General sounds too naive. Just discipline your officers so that they should be refusing hand outs which cannot happen too soon unless you discipline there indecent salaries.
Just give us a WhatsApp line and we’ll give you their names. They’re also sent to fundraise by their superiors, so be very determined if you desire to reduce these incidences
Improve conditions of service for the police and look into there Salaries then you can talk about what are you are talking about Kajoba.otherwise your sentiments are just bluffs to please your master
That’s more like giving notice to the entire police force. Impossible. You are better off working quietly to restructure by bringing in new policing ideas from places where they have been tried and tested. Sometimes these leaders look at Zambia as being the entire world, no out of the box thinking. I blame the ministry of education for that because we seriously need to introduce pre-school for every 3 to 4 year old where kids could have an early start in life by learning through play to boost creativity in later life.
On the surface yes, but underneath it’s impossible and I mean impossible
It seems everything this govt does that the previous govt couldnt even attempt to tackle will not receive any positive comments from some bloggers…you wonder why even when some are enjoying professional corrupt free Police services in diaspora.
Back to the topic if I was this IG I would have proposed to the govt to abolish the whole traffic depart in ZP and gradually introduce fresh recruits…train senior officers as this is the root of all corruption every officer wants to work there. Then I would propose to increase salaries and provide full equipment for all police officers….you also have to minimise officers handling cash. All that money Stephen K was wasting on constructing surveillance buildings to monitor citizens and militarising ZP could have been used to improve the…
militarising ZP could have been used to improve the conditions of service.
I would suggest you remove the traffic officers from conducting these roadblocks all over the country. Surely there should be a better way of checking for misonko. The roads were done to smoothen the traffic flow only to allow roadblocks all over creating congestion. How can the speed limit on say mumbwa or Kafue road be 40km? Even 60 is low. Lets move away from these roadblocks altogether because they are taking away the little people have in their pockets. This was another way, just like cadres extorting money. Also vehicles caught for flimsy stuff like mudflaps, wipers in the hot season etc. Please help us.
CORRUPTION IS INBREED NOW AND WAS ENCOURAGED BY PF BY THE FACT THEY DID NOTHING ABOUT IT
IT WONT STOP ANYTIME SOON
FINE SPEEDING K300.00…. LUNCH MONEY K100.00
WHAT WOULD YOUR CHOICE BE ?????
Deploying secret agents is the way to go. You have to employee new agent officers from Universities Collages etc You should also think of reducing some road offence fees. Where one has to pay K450 for speaking on the phone while driving, he/she will give K100 to a Police Officer and get away with it. This is what is happening on the roads The traffic Police officers are the most corrupt workers in the country, they are owning property beyond their incomes.
I can see smart fraudsters taking their suits to the laundry in readiness to masquerade as secret agents to steal from Traffic officers after a long day of accepting bribes at 17:00 hrs.
I think an independent department should have been created with Parliamentary approval like “Internal Affairs” to investigate all officers including the IG himself and all Commissioners to constables. Those officers who are out all day at illegal Roadblocks do not do so with their supervisors knowing their whereabouts…this is an ingrained problem…who are secret agents going to report to? IG…Police officers can not investigate themselves…where is the budget for these secret agents? You mean they will be using Police vehicles from where? senior officers… to catch corrupt officers?
If here are 100 days allocated, 99 are for the thief and only 1 day is for the owner. All thieves eventually get caught.
Some past president hiked fees hoping to fight graft. Another moved payment point from the police station to the banks in a same bid to fight corruption.
Let’s see what other methods can deter this vice. Doesn’t it take a thief to catch one? Sometime, it does.
#7 Tarino if you expected praises that easily you are in a rude welcome. You think you can just wake up and expect the policeman on the road to change all of a sudden? Even Kajoba knows but he has to parrot the master in order to make an impression in order to keep his sudden lucky job.
#12 Tarino, not that I am against your imagination… but that can only work in a movie. Let me recount what I witnessed in 2002 at a magistrate court on the copperbelt. This guy had reported court clerk to the ACC for shielding someone he had sued for defrauding him. Just as he entered the registery the said clerk proudly told our man: So you think the ACC can help you with your problem? I will arrange for the case when I decide. So don’t waste your time reporting me to anyone, anywhere… So Tarino unless you have a president who is omnipresent, your suggestion will do well as a James Bond script.
Just blowing hot air to please his small god HH…Kajoba you were in the same corrupt Police force why didn’t you end corruption….taking Zambians for granted….now everyone wants to sound tough on paper
Why not establish Internal Affairs department to investigate Officers. Its job is to deal with Police affairs, bribes, assault…….
My advice is completely do away with traffic check points which are populary called ATMs by traffic officers, focus on mobile traffic patrols which I know our cooperating donor partners would gladly assist the govt with the purchase of patrol vehicles. Reduce the amount of money to be paid on penalties to make bribery of officers even more expensive.
Let me further elaborate. Bribery will never cease especially in poorer nations like ours so one has to think outside the box and be pragmatic by reducing penalities so that making the actual payment for an offence will not be a very costly expense to motorists. As it stands the penalties are impractically very high and make bribery the only realistic option for most.
Secondly remove traffic officers from one location or these ATMs and make them mobile on patrol with cameras 24/7 as is the case abroad.
Remmy Kajoba. Remmy, not Lemmy. Repeat after me, Remmy!
So you have to go to the ACC office to report a bribing police officer? Let me tell you, nobody is going to do that. I went to the ACC office once, two years ago, they kept me waiting for two hours, and then they clearly didn’t believe me. Nothing ever happened to the case. ACC is the most corrupt itself!
Traffic officers are most corrupt culprits and they do chilimba amongst them selves. Even senior officers are involved. Please investigate on this one our new IG. They do mount unnecessary road blocks just to raise money for lunch and giving to their girlfriends. Please deal with them
Get rid of all those permanent road blocks on highways. They serve no purpose except to make money for police officers pockets. Traffic section should only be allowed to carry out spot checks whether on highways or locally for short periods not to camp there the whole day.
Deja Vu – I dont expect praises from you…you want to come across as objective, some clear attempt at rebranding yourself …really laughable…but you can not foooool some of us who have been LT since when RB, Sata, Lazy Lungu were Presidents!!
Deja Vu – IN response to your post 15 …We can not move anywhere with people like you…you see obstacles at every corner
Minibus drivers are lawless on the roads because these silly matatus are owned by police officers.Unbelievable.
There is no perception, the Zambia police is CORRUPT to the core. These guys interact with the public on a daily basis. You should hear them negotiating with the alleged offenders “ How much do you have?” We need a body to over see the police. In its current form the Zambia police cannot redeem itself.
STOP SUMMARY FINES BY POLICE WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT.
#28 By law you are allowed to pay at any police station within a specific time. Problem is the police use psychology to extort money from you by for example taking your driving license… which is illegal..or by taking your car keys which is pure banditry. We are also to blame because we easily yield to this nonsense. If all of refuse to pay to the police man what can he do apart from following what the law says.
All said and done we, as Zambian citizens, we cannot, on a daily basis, be hunted, haunted, hounded, harassed and persecuted by our own traffic police officers. The minute you enter your vehicle and drive onto one of our roads you are presumed guilty of one traffic offence or another until the traffic officers, our bloodhound watchdogs, grudgingly and reluctantly find you innocent. And we think we have our rights and freedoms? Pleeeease!!!
Lemmy Kajoba is an oppressor. He’s been around for too long and done wrong things. For example, on Aug 9, 2000 he warned students from the UNZA and CBU against calling for nationwide civil disobedience if the State Proceedings Bill passes into law, saying anarchy would not be allowed. “We will not allow anarchy to show its ugly face in Zambia,” police spokesperson Lemmy Kajoba told Deutsche Presse-Agentur. We can not have this kind of intolerant people in our police service! Reminds me of the PF aka Police Force.