Kisumu County government has announced plans to install 2,500 CCTV cameras to enhance surveillance and contain runaway crime.
According to Kisumu City Manager Abala Wanga, a geospatial plan for the project has identified locations for the installation that also targets tracking transport mobility in the city.
Further, he said currently Kisumu has no CCTV cameras and heavily relied on those installed on private buildings by the business community.
Wanga said this was ineffective in monitoring activities in the city whose population has grown tenfold.
To be mounted in the city, estates, and strategic points in rural areas, the cameras shall be interfaced with street lights to ensure clear monitoring from one point to another.
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“We want when somebody has committed a crime on a street in the CBD for example, he is monitored to his destination,” he said.
He also said this should also apply to motor vehicles, public service vehicles boda boda, and tuk-tuks to ensure the city remained safe.
He said all boda boda operators were going to be registered with the two-wheelers fitted with GPS devices to track their movement.
The initiative, to be rolled out under the urban resilience mass transport initiative through the World Bank-funded Kisumu Urban Project (KUP), was in response to a spike in the number of criminal activities associated with the operators.
“Anywhere there is a crime or robbery incident you will always find a boda boda person there. That is why we want them registered with GPIS so that we can monitor them through the system and the CCTV cameras,” he said.
Wanga disclosed that the city management has issued new directives rerouting public transport, adding that the CCTV cameras would help track non-compliant operators.
Under the new directive, vehicles coming from Busia and Bondo will take a detour at the Paramount area and come to Mamba before heading to the main bus park through Ondiek Road, while town service vehicles will drop passengers at Patel roundabout and will not be allowed to the CBD, he said.
