NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 11- A new report by the National Crime Research Centre has exposed a myriad of challenges hampering the performance of police in Kenya.
It is the same challenges that border on lack of goodwill by the government and ethical issues among officers, that have killed the dream to have a reformed police service. But there is also the aspect of interference by external forces, the report revealed.
The report, titled “Factors Shaping Police Performance In Kenya”, saw 11-gazetted officers, 61 Inspectorate officers, and 904 non-commissioned officers interviewed.
Also conducted included 57 key informants’ interviews and 10 focus group discussions.
According to the report, the factors affecting police performance in Kenya are widespread and deep-rooted.
The challenges start from the inception- at the recruitment stage. As a bad ritual, the recently concluded recruitment exercise was a sham, with unscrupulous police officers and conmen said to have pocketed hundreds of millions in bribes.
Forty percent of the respondents said the selection and recruitment of police officers in Kenya is not sufficient.
The recruitment process, they said, is marred by a lack of fairness and transparency at 41.6 percent followed by corruption at 15.6 percent, the report by the state agency exposed.
At a distant third, the respondents who included senior police officers said there is “a lot of interference at 5.7 percent” during the recruitment process.
Others talked of inadequate eligibility criteria at 5.5 percent, high competition due to few vacancies at 2.7 percent, and disguised tribalism at 1.9 percent.
In their report, NCRC said that those who highlighted lack of fairness and transparency during the recruitment process narrowed it down to widespread bribery (80.6 pc), nepotism (43.9pc), tribalism (20.5pc), and biased distribution of available vacancies (19pc).
To address this, NCRC said there should be 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.
While some were ‘successful’ in bribing their way to the police service, there are others who lost the chance and money.
A case study is an incident that occurred on April 7 in Karatina, where 3 people lost their Sh1.8 million to comment promising police jobs. The matter is being probed by DCI detectives based in Nyeri.
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 a 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 the Hilton hotel after parting with Sh600,000 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 is 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.
So far, 10 people among them police officers have been arrested for defrauding Kenyans during the March 24, exercise.
The detailed NCRC report also focused on barriers to police performance in Kenya.
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.
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