The County Assembly Public Accounts Committee has confirmed that the Sh431 million CCTV camera project was a complete flop and cannot be relied on to enhance security.

According to a report by committee, 26 out of the 42 cameras installed on, among other major roads, Moi Avenue, Uhuru highway and the Mombasa Road, are not functioning due to lack of maintenance.

When KTN ran an expose’ in march revealing that the much hyped CCTV cameras were not working, The  county’s acting  transport and infrastructure minister Frederick Karanja said that the defunct metropolitan ministry, which installed the cameras, never handed them to City Hall and they have no access to some systems.

“City Hall is unable to repair and maintain the cameras because some systems are still under lock and key,” Karanja said.

The Sh431 million CCTV camera project was installed by the defunct Nairobi metropolitan via a contract awarded to a Chinese firm in 2012. Nanjing Les Information Technologies won the tender to install 51 cameras and new traffic lights.

In 2015 another report by the Nairobi County Assembly’s Transport Committee said the cameras were unreliable and that the quality of the images captured by the cameras installed two years ago at a cost of Sh430 million “is low and unreliable in most cases.

Wananchi raised concerns on why the cameras failed to provide any sufficient evidence to help identify the people who killed former Kabete MP John Muchai, who was shot along Kenyatta Avenue.

The CCTV cameras were also supposed to be able to capture vital information like number plates that could be used in prosecution of traffic offenders.