Kenya Police

The Kenya Police is a national body in charge of law enforcement in Kenya. While organised at a national level, each arm reports to a County police authority, which in turn divides its force by local Police Divisions, headquartered at local police stations. All these element report to a National Kenya Police Headquarters in Nairobi, and several specialist elements, such as the Kenya Police College, are commanded directly from here. An Administration Police service is commanded through a hierarchy separate from that of the National Kenya Police. For other state security bodies see Law enforcement in Kenya.

History

The current force was established as a British colonial police force in 1907. From the 1887 to 1902 policing was provided by the East Africa Trading Company (after 1902 the Kenya-Uganda Railway introduced their police units as well).

In 1906 the Police Ordinance was established to create a new force in 1907 and the current force's name came into effect in 1920. The colonial force was made up mainly of British and Indian recruits as senior officers and Africans amongst lower ranks.

Traffic police

Traffic police or traffic officers, often referred to colloquially as traffic cops, are police officers who direct traffic or serve in a traffic or roads policing unit enforcing rules of the road. Traffic police include officers who patrol major roads and also police who address traffic infractions on other roads. It has been noted that:

History

Traffic police have existed in some form for nearly three centuries:

Automatic traffic police

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo five automatic traffic police are in operation. The large aluminium figures are able to rotate at the waist, and contain closed circuit television cameras to allow them to record offenders, for later apprehension or imposition of fines. The system runs on solar power, from panels on the roof of the structure within which the robot stands. The robot controls the traffic with red and green lights in its hands, and the use of articulated arms. The robots can also speak to pedestrians and help them safely cross the road.