Tanzania Orders Port Bellied Traffic Officers To be Assigned “Other Duties”

Pot-Bellied Police manning traffic in Tanzania will be assigned different duties following an order from the Country’s interior ministry which stated that the officers were not fit for the job.

Speaking at a Road Safety Symposium in Dodoma, Tanzania Interior Minister George Boniface Taguluvala Simbachawene was for the opinion that pot-bellied officers are not worthy to man the roads due to their physique that could affect their service delivery.

“There are officers working in our traffic department who need to be moved as they no longer qualify, officers in Gairo are pot-bellied, how can you have a pot-belly and you are a traffic officer, I direct the IGP to re-assign these officers to other duties,” he said.

The Minister also warned traffic officers who were soliciting bribes from the members of the public adding that the law would catch up with them.

Tanzania’s announcement can be related to a previous law in Iran that outlined that all officers with pot-bellies and overweight to be relieved from frontline duties and moved to lower ranks in the police force.

In Kenya, a traffic officer with a pot-belly is at times assumed to be corrupt and is also deemed to have more experience in taking bribes from the members of the public.

Police officers are always very slender when they join the forces but within a year or two, their bellies start growing a situation that affects their service delivery. They tend to be very lazy when doing things and they opt to work in departments where they can pass time, like the traffic.

The Kenyan Government should consider doing the same thing as Tanzania and Iran to improve the police force especially in the traffic department. Well, the department should also have manning points in specified areas.