why the police need reforms
Do you remember cops-and-
robbers?…Police-and-thieves, and other good-versus-evil type
of games of our childhood? Kids
at some point dream of
becoming police officers, mainly
to “catch thieves” and to be the heroes of their times but,
sadly, these dreams almost
never see the light of day,
partly due to the lacklustre
image of the police and partly
due to the brightness of all other careers when compared
to policing. They realize that
policemen in Kenya do not have
a reputation (sic), not even a
bad one. They are notorious for
being overtly and overly corrupt, infamous for being
trigger-happy and unfortunate
for being hopeless and hapless
pawns of the state. It is sad that in the police force
and government fairy tale,
loyalty supersedes conscience. In
this fairy tale, there is always
one snappy ending…another life lost, another dream shattered,
and another mistake by the
mboys. “Oops I did it again”, that is the song the police
spokesman sings when asked
about cases of police brutality.
News bulletins are never short
of news of police bullets being
agents of death. There is no news worse than that of an
innocent sanguine school child
killed by stray police bullets.
Suspects in Kenya are not given
an opportunity to be guilty;
sorry if you are a suspect, they will prove you guilty in death. Back in high school, we had a
career fair and with one surge
of my boyhood curiosity, I asked
one of the alumni, who was a
police sergeant, why the Kenya
Police is always in the news for the wrong reasons, especially
for committing illicit murder. He
had an answer, of course.
Verbatim: Sometimes as a police
officer, you aim for a fairly
innocuous shot, like a foot or thigh shot, but somehow the
bullet usually finds the
suspect’ s head or torso! There was an uproar and teenage
disgust that was respectfully
expressed in a cheer, and a
round of applause. The policeman
went ahead to show us his gun
and rounds, and of course, another round of applause
followed this sideshow. Granted, there will always be
mistakes when trying to shoot a
suspect in motion; however, with
the surge in the number of
suspects being gunned down,
either suspects in Kenya have a uniquely weird running style or
the policemen are head over
heels trigger-happy. A third,
more logical, reason would be to
question the type of gun the
Kenya Police use. The Automatic Kalashnikov 47 (AK-47) is an
assault rifle whose time is long
gone. It has proven inaccuracy
and whenever I see a policeman
raising one up, I know he is up
to no good. The AK-47 inspires fear and
resentment; also it is too heavy
for the underpaid officers. It
hinders the first instinct of a
cop, which is to chase after a
suspect and attempt to make an arrest. A policeman’ s gun should be like a spare tire. He
should have it, but not hope to
use it. He should also keep it
within sight, but not in full view;
partially hidden. However, if he
has to, he should stop and think momentarily before using it.
Having a gun does not make its
use the only choice for a cop.
Sometimes just a stern warning
in the cop Swahili is more than
enough assault to a civilian bending the law; a kick in the
butt is a much better
alternative to a shot in the
same place. The policeman’ s uniform and gun are more than
enough to identify a cop and
earn him respect and admiration.
A policeman should be a symbol
of protection and service, not
fear and violence. It is futile for an underpaid and overworked
individual to use the bullet to
exert his frustration and
“authority” over civilians. The time to bite the bullet is long
overdue, it is time to reform a
shattered image and seek the
help of the civilians in
maintaining law, order and
peace. Coming to think of it, I heard
that the criminal mind has not
changed in all of the history of
crime and criminal justice. The
criminal is very much a person
who lives in fear and is afraid, very afraid, of the consequences
of his actions. This natural
psychological bent of criminals
towards guilt, coupled with
community policing are a
policeman’ s best bet against crime. There is no better
policeman than the human eye,
no better crime-buster than the
human ear. People will talk; walls
will hear. Only if the police seek
the faith, trust and counsel of the civilian, theirs would be a
job half lighter. You know what
they say about a problem
shared? It is halved; imagine
sharing a problem with forty
million others? Community policing cannot work if the police does
not sharpen its blunt image as a
key violator of human rights. Dialing 999 is more likely to ask
you for fuel than solve your
problems. With such blatant
solicitation of funds, it is a no-
no to ask the police for help if
you do not have bribes. While in driving school, we had to pay a
fee to pass the driving test.
Luckily for me, I put my money
to good use. On the day of the
test, I could not start the
manual car; I kept stepping on the brakes with the idea that it
was the accelerator pedal.
Unfortunately, I passed the test
anyway. I digress. It is almost
unheard of for a policeman to
advise a civilian. Whenever a police lorry passes by a slum,
what follows is the classic
“every man for himself and tear-gas for us all” kind of story. The blue police uniform
has become a symbol of
disservice to all; it is seen as
being up to no good, maybe only
once in a rare blue moon. Familiarity breeds contempt.
Remember back in 2007 during
the unfortunate episodes of
violence? All over the news,
civilians were declaring their
resolve to battle the bullet with the machete. That is the seed
the police plant in civilians every
time they commit murder, or fail
to account for a suspect. If that
was the seed planted, I do not
wish to imagine the tree borne of such violence. Picking up
tear-gas canisters is almost a
hobby, from Kibera, Uhuru Park
to UoN, then and there
retaliatory acts against the
police are becoming all too common, and the police are
responsible for these acts of
violence. Police violence only
begets civilian violence. If the
police arrest civilians for missing
ID cards, walking at night or peacefully demonstrating or
other such inexplicable reasons,
why are we calling ourselves a
republic? Every roadblock in
Kenya should perhaps be labelled
as KRA tax booths? This is a form, albeit mild, of slavery and
colonization. Civilians cannot live
in an endless state of perpetual
fear in an independent state, it
is counter-intuitive! Finally, I have to admit, it was a
sight to behold when policemen
and civilians united in tears
after a fed-up civilian threw
back a tear gas canister into
the back of a lorry full of cops; and Kenyans what with the
sudden water and handkerchief
business during demonstrations? True, we Kenyans never miss
and opportunity to miss an
opportunity. Let’ s not miss this opportunity to radically reform
the image, standards and
character of the Police Force. There is a thin line between
truth and fiction. This is that
line.
robbers?…Police-and-thieves, and other good-versus-evil type
of games of our childhood? Kids
at some point dream of
becoming police officers, mainly
to “catch thieves” and to be the heroes of their times but,
sadly, these dreams almost
never see the light of day,
partly due to the lacklustre
image of the police and partly
due to the brightness of all other careers when compared
to policing. They realize that
policemen in Kenya do not have
a reputation (sic), not even a
bad one. They are notorious for
being overtly and overly corrupt, infamous for being
trigger-happy and unfortunate
for being hopeless and hapless
pawns of the state. It is sad that in the police force
and government fairy tale,
loyalty supersedes conscience. In
this fairy tale, there is always
one snappy ending…another life lost, another dream shattered,
and another mistake by the
mboys. “Oops I did it again”, that is the song the police
spokesman sings when asked
about cases of police brutality.
News bulletins are never short
of news of police bullets being
agents of death. There is no news worse than that of an
innocent sanguine school child
killed by stray police bullets.
Suspects in Kenya are not given
an opportunity to be guilty;
sorry if you are a suspect, they will prove you guilty in death. Back in high school, we had a
career fair and with one surge
of my boyhood curiosity, I asked
one of the alumni, who was a
police sergeant, why the Kenya
Police is always in the news for the wrong reasons, especially
for committing illicit murder. He
had an answer, of course.
Verbatim: Sometimes as a police
officer, you aim for a fairly
innocuous shot, like a foot or thigh shot, but somehow the
bullet usually finds the
suspect’ s head or torso! There was an uproar and teenage
disgust that was respectfully
expressed in a cheer, and a
round of applause. The policeman
went ahead to show us his gun
and rounds, and of course, another round of applause
followed this sideshow. Granted, there will always be
mistakes when trying to shoot a
suspect in motion; however, with
the surge in the number of
suspects being gunned down,
either suspects in Kenya have a uniquely weird running style or
the policemen are head over
heels trigger-happy. A third,
more logical, reason would be to
question the type of gun the
Kenya Police use. The Automatic Kalashnikov 47 (AK-47) is an
assault rifle whose time is long
gone. It has proven inaccuracy
and whenever I see a policeman
raising one up, I know he is up
to no good. The AK-47 inspires fear and
resentment; also it is too heavy
for the underpaid officers. It
hinders the first instinct of a
cop, which is to chase after a
suspect and attempt to make an arrest. A policeman’ s gun should be like a spare tire. He
should have it, but not hope to
use it. He should also keep it
within sight, but not in full view;
partially hidden. However, if he
has to, he should stop and think momentarily before using it.
Having a gun does not make its
use the only choice for a cop.
Sometimes just a stern warning
in the cop Swahili is more than
enough assault to a civilian bending the law; a kick in the
butt is a much better
alternative to a shot in the
same place. The policeman’ s uniform and gun are more than
enough to identify a cop and
earn him respect and admiration.
A policeman should be a symbol
of protection and service, not
fear and violence. It is futile for an underpaid and overworked
individual to use the bullet to
exert his frustration and
“authority” over civilians. The time to bite the bullet is long
overdue, it is time to reform a
shattered image and seek the
help of the civilians in
maintaining law, order and
peace. Coming to think of it, I heard
that the criminal mind has not
changed in all of the history of
crime and criminal justice. The
criminal is very much a person
who lives in fear and is afraid, very afraid, of the consequences
of his actions. This natural
psychological bent of criminals
towards guilt, coupled with
community policing are a
policeman’ s best bet against crime. There is no better
policeman than the human eye,
no better crime-buster than the
human ear. People will talk; walls
will hear. Only if the police seek
the faith, trust and counsel of the civilian, theirs would be a
job half lighter. You know what
they say about a problem
shared? It is halved; imagine
sharing a problem with forty
million others? Community policing cannot work if the police does
not sharpen its blunt image as a
key violator of human rights. Dialing 999 is more likely to ask
you for fuel than solve your
problems. With such blatant
solicitation of funds, it is a no-
no to ask the police for help if
you do not have bribes. While in driving school, we had to pay a
fee to pass the driving test.
Luckily for me, I put my money
to good use. On the day of the
test, I could not start the
manual car; I kept stepping on the brakes with the idea that it
was the accelerator pedal.
Unfortunately, I passed the test
anyway. I digress. It is almost
unheard of for a policeman to
advise a civilian. Whenever a police lorry passes by a slum,
what follows is the classic
“every man for himself and tear-gas for us all” kind of story. The blue police uniform
has become a symbol of
disservice to all; it is seen as
being up to no good, maybe only
once in a rare blue moon. Familiarity breeds contempt.
Remember back in 2007 during
the unfortunate episodes of
violence? All over the news,
civilians were declaring their
resolve to battle the bullet with the machete. That is the seed
the police plant in civilians every
time they commit murder, or fail
to account for a suspect. If that
was the seed planted, I do not
wish to imagine the tree borne of such violence. Picking up
tear-gas canisters is almost a
hobby, from Kibera, Uhuru Park
to UoN, then and there
retaliatory acts against the
police are becoming all too common, and the police are
responsible for these acts of
violence. Police violence only
begets civilian violence. If the
police arrest civilians for missing
ID cards, walking at night or peacefully demonstrating or
other such inexplicable reasons,
why are we calling ourselves a
republic? Every roadblock in
Kenya should perhaps be labelled
as KRA tax booths? This is a form, albeit mild, of slavery and
colonization. Civilians cannot live
in an endless state of perpetual
fear in an independent state, it
is counter-intuitive! Finally, I have to admit, it was a
sight to behold when policemen
and civilians united in tears
after a fed-up civilian threw
back a tear gas canister into
the back of a lorry full of cops; and Kenyans what with the
sudden water and handkerchief
business during demonstrations? True, we Kenyans never miss
and opportunity to miss an
opportunity. Let’ s not miss this opportunity to radically reform
the image, standards and
character of the Police Force. There is a thin line between
truth and fiction. This is that
line.
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