City Hall has announced its intention to recruit up to 650 county askaris by June this year.
The new askaris will serve to reform the inspectorate department. All other officials who have been said to be corrupt and brutal will be laid off.
The new officers will be given newly designed uniforms which will have staff numbers and also be given biometric Identity cards as said by the county secretary, Robert Ayasi. This comes few days after many people in the country complained of the harassment by county askaris. The hawkers in Nairobi called on the Nairobi governor, Evans Kidero to arrest all corrupt officials who were reported to take bribes from hawkers.
The cry of the hawkers was well covered in an investigative series which was broadcasted on KTN TV dubbed ‘The Kanjo Kingdom’ where many hawkers were killed and several others wounded by the askaris.
The askaris were reported to have been using too much force while handling the hawkers. Kidero came out strongly to condemn the brutal act and vowed to sack all the violent askaris.