NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 11- As the country nears the August 9 general elections, the role of police in maintaining law and order is set to become even more prominent, as President Uhuru Kenyatta exits State House and the battle to succeed him intensifies.
A lot is at stake and the police have one onerous job; to ensure there is no repeat of Kenya’s darkest days of 2007-2008 post-election violence when more than 1,000 people were killed and 600,000 others internally displaced.
A few months before the election, the police have already been accused of being used to intimidate politicians allied to one side of the current political factions, claims they have denied.
A new report has now revealed some of the top barriers to police performance in Kenya, despite a myriad of efforts to reform the service.
Police officers in 18 Counties among them Nyeri, Mombasa, Kisumu, Isiolo, Vihiga, West Pokot, Taita Taveta, Nakuru and Meru were interviewed on a number of issues, including challenges that affected their output.
The strata of sampled police officers comprised Gazetted officers, Members of Inspectorate and Non-Commissioned Officers.
The gazetted officers are the senior-most personnel in the police service whose appointments are published in the Kenya Gazette and usually hold the ranks of Inspector General, Deputy Inspector General, Senior Assistant Inspector General, Assistant Inspector General, Senior Superintendent, Superintendent, and Assistant Superintendent.
The NCRC questionnaire was administered to 11-gazetted officers, 61 Inspectorate officers, and 904 non-commissioned officers.
Also conducted included 57 key informants’ interviews and 10 focus group discussions were undertaken, NCRC said.
-Why The Poor Performance-
The report by the National Crime Research Centre, say gazetted police officers rated inadequate resourcing at 63.3 percent as the top reason why police in Kenya are yet to meet the expectations of members of the public.
Others, they said are low pay and benefits remuneration at 45.5 percent, poor housing and punitive transfer/placement at 27.3 percent, poor working conditions at 27.3 percent, and stressful work at 18.2 percent.
The Inspectorate rank, NCRC said, reported the top five barriers as; inadequate resourcing (55.2pc), internal and external interference (43.1pc), inadequate pay and benefits (37.9pc), poor housing (25.9pc), poor leadership and punitive placement (20.7pc) and corruption (19pc).
“The other ranks reported the following as key barriers; inadequate resourcing (46pc), inadequate pay and benefits (38.5pc), internal and external interference (30.3pc), poor working conditions (17.6pc) and poor housing (15.6pc),” reads the report.
Some of the challenges have been identified as a source of the surge in suicide cases among police officers. Tens of police officers have claimed their lives and in some instances that of their colleagues and loved ones, due to work-related pressures, that weigh heavily on their mental wellness.
The effectiveness of a mental wellness programme by the National Police Service Commission is set to be seen, as more cases continue to be recorded.
To address the shortcomings, the state-sponsored NCRC says the Hillary Mutyambai led National Police Service in collaboration with their employer, the National Police Service Commission should create well, “publicized confidential professional counseling services within the police to be based in each county and ensure widespread access to these professional counseling services to officers and police families.”
NPSC has been asked to ensure that risk factors related to police work are compensable factors in salary indexing by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), in a bid to guarantee a competitive remuneration system for police officers as a retention and motivation strategy.
Further, the two institutions have been challenged to establish an award scheme, in a bid to recognize outstanding police officers.
NCRC has also urged both NPS and NPSC to implement a robust career progression strategy, that will encourage common cadre promotions and discourage suppression of promotion where other officers bypass others.
Also in their list of recommendations is the need for a competitive medical cover and comprehensive insurance life cover for police officers, “with attention on psychological support care.”
The NPS and NPSC have been also asked to implement a proven behavior assessment toolkit as a precise variable in refining the selection and recruitment process for potential police recruits, to match workplace and individual expectations of new police recruits.
Also in the set of recommendations by NCRC, in a bid to improve police performance, the NPS alongside NPSC have been asked to educate senior and junior police officers, to ensure impartiality in the police operating procedures.
This, the research centre said will increase trust and reduce gender frustrations of male and female officers, “which can lead to violence.”
The report also called on the inclusion of multi-agency professionals in the police recruitment process, in a bid to support the vetting of candidates and deter malpractices.
The just-concluded recruitment of police officers is said to have been marred by massive corruption, with those involved said to have bagged hundreds of millions, from desperate Kenyans seeking to join the service.
Others lost millions of shillings to unscrupulous officers and conmen.
On April 7, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations said a probe on how three people lost Sh1.8 million to conmen promising police jobs was ongoing, after a dramatic incident in Karatina, Nyeri County.
The three, Dismas Kirwa, 25, Felix Kiprotich, 28 and Jepn’getich Kosgei, 20, had traveled from Nairobi and were made to believe that they were headed to the National Police College Main Campus – Kiganjo, where they would begin their recruits course culminating to an illustrious career in the police service.
Earlier, the DCI said their parents had accompanied them to Nairobi from Nandi county, where they secured their ‘employment’ outside Hilton hotel after parting with S 600,000 each.
After being shown their ‘offer letters’, which turned out to be fake, they were ushered into a waiting Toyota Noah and the driver instructed to drop them at the premier police training institution.
However, upon reaching Karatina the driver stopped the vehicle for lunch before proceeding with the rest of the journey.
The driver later claimed that their car had been stolen- and that is how the three knew they had been conned.
Police recovered the vehicle in Kerugoya and found all three fake appointment letters inside.
One suspect has since been arrested and in custody assisting with the ongoing investigations.
Hundreds of others are said to have fallen victims to such tricks across the country, to what has now become a ‘ritual’, every time there is a recruitment exercise.
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