This archive report was first published on 22 August 2021.
The Dark Side of a Kenyan Cop's Day ¶
On a typical Monday morning, a Kenyan cop's day begins with a morning parade, a ritual that sets the tone for the rest of the day. The officer in charge, the OCS, is in a foul mood, and the atmosphere is tense.
The OCS orders the Sergeant to round up everyone, but the Sergeant is a tad elderly and weather-beaten, with a faded sweater and holes on the elbows. He likes berating juniors with his stories from the glorious 80's, of his stints in The Shifta War, when 'the police was the police.'
As the parade begins, the OCS starts to dress down the timid Constable Mutiso for a full two minutes, throwing in jabs about his inability to pay his kid's school fees and an estranged wife. The mahabusu, a few feet away, are already snickering through the bars on the iron door.
After Mutiso joins, the OCS proceeds to cancel the week's application for offs and leaves citing a probability of the Interior Minister making an impromptu visit. Unused to the scenario, Constable Akinyi reminds the OCS that she hasn't seen her family 'since Kiganjo.'
Long after the question, the Sergeant is still nodding, as he hardly ever goes upcountry and has a parallel family in the neighbourhood. The OCS then digs into a memo from HQ, pausing often to mute his phone. Someone's phone rings in the rear row, and the OCS wonders who's that so indisciplined.
As the parade breaks, someone's ego is in the gutter after a public bashing on family matters, someone is feeling like crap - leave has been cancelled, and someone spent the night drinking and is nursing the grandmother of all hangovers.
It's a simple code: one, have your brother's back. If your brother decides to kick in someone's face, have his back. Thou shall never criticise a colleague -- especially in front of a raiyaa!
It's a never-ending cycle of chaos, with a bad day often leading to tragic consequences. The Kianjokoma Brothers, the Kayole Youth, and lots of other undocumented deaths ultimately got the blunt end of a cop's bad day in the office.
