This archive report was first published on 14 June 2020.
The Dark Side of Kenya's Police Service ¶
Kenyan police officers have been accused of committing every imaginable crime, from accepting bribes to brazenly shooting people dead. The question is, what ails our police service, and what do we want reformed?
Since the first coronavirus case was reported in Kenya, the country has been living in fear. People have been whipped and clobbered for the smallest of infractions, with officers seeming to enjoy every part of it. This open display of barbarity has led to calls for police reforms, but the question remains, what do we want reformed?
Kenyan police officers can be the biggest criminals on earth. They have been accused of committing every crime imaginable, from accepting bribes to carrying out bank heists. During the pandemic, their victims have mostly been people whose economic well-being has been hit hard by the disease.
But the truth is, Kenyans, we are the Frankenstein. We created and continue to feed this monster through our love for underhand deals and shortcuts. We flout and break all the laws and rules while fully aware that we will bribe police officers and get our way.
So, who are these police officers who cause us so much harm? Where are their parents, their spouses, their kin? Where were they bred and which education system did they go through? In which society did they grow up and what triggers their brutality, depravity, and barbarity?
These are simple questions that should inform the police service we want and the kind of reforms we desire. We have to answer them, as a nation, because we are all victims, yet we all aid and abet the perpetrators.
And by the way, are we even ready to live in a society without corrupt, murderous, ill-trained, and brutal police officers?
- The writer is an editor with The Standard.
