The National Police Service (NPS) has been urged to discard use of manual occurrence book to record crime incidents at their stations and instead move the service to digital platform.

The Telkom Kenya Chief Technology and Information officer Mr. John Barorot expressed concern over use of manual Occurrence Book across the country by NPS continued which he noted was cumbersome and difficult to obtain instant information on nature of prevailing crimes in different locations in the country.

Addressing particvipants at a Kwale Hotel during the Connect Kenya Summit today, Barorot said the most of the government services had been moved to digital plat form and that if the police adopted the digital format in recording incidents of at their various stations, it would ease efficient collection of data that could be accessed instantly for the formulation of effective strategies to rapidly respond to incidents and crime.

On critical infrastructure, Mr Barorot said there was need to amend the legal framework to compel those who damage the infrastructure to pay for the economic loss.

The official said damage to critical infrastructure such as the fibre optic cables, led to enormous loss of income, jobs and business that impact on the country’s economy. He regretted that the current law on protection of critical infrastructure was deficient because it only provides for those who destroy the infrastructure to pay for only the cost of damage without taking into consideration the economic loss suffered by investors and the public.

He explained that the law should be reviewed to allow for the assessment of the economic loss to enable arbitrators award commensurate punishment of compensation for the commissions to discourage vandals and compel developer to be cautious against damages.

By Cheruiyot Korir April 10, 2017