Kitutu Masaba MP Timothy Bosire now wants the government to invest more resources towards improving conditions in police cells, prisons as well as housing for police officers.
Bosire, together with seven other legislators, were locked up in police cells for four days in Nairobi, following their arrest over hate speech remarks.
The eight legislators have since been charged at a Nairobi court regarding the matter and are out on bond.
And on Sunday, a jovial Bosire told this writer that the conditions in police cells were deplorable, which calls for urgent redress for the sake of transforming the security department.
“I had never been to detained until last week, but I am equally disappointed with our police cells, prisons and even police housing. This is the exact area that the government needs to invest and improve on to ensure it meets habitable standards,” Bosire said.
“A lot of resources are allocated to the Ministry of Interior and Coordination but it’s unfortunate that all these three areas are never addressed. We will fight in Parliament to ensure all this mess is rectified urgently across the country,” he added.
He also called for urgent reforms in the police sector arguing that officers are still stuck in the past, with a number of them unaware of the new constitutional provisions about basic human rights.
"You cannot arrest someone, lock them up in a small, stinking dark room, and also deny them access to medicine. This kind of detentions only existed many years ago. There is also need to have urgent police reforms that also touches on modern training and ethics. That is the only way we can progress,” he said.