Police reforms more than raising pay

Everyone’s screaming for police reform, and given the insecurity that blights our country, very understandably so.

But unfortunately, too much of the talk has emphasised only a subset of what is needed.

We understand and accept that we must pay and house our policemen and women properly; that they must work in decent and well-equipped offices; and that they must be mobile.

However necessary all this is though, it is far from sufficient for delivering an effective police service.

I know that the committee within GJLOS (the expired Governance, Justice, Law and Order Sector reforms initiative) charged with looking into transforming the police only managed to elicit positive responses from the senior officers present when the talk was of such things as improving salaries and housing.

As soon as the subject turned to the work itself, to the core business of preventing and reducing crime, the officers lost interest.

As often as not they didn’t even show up to the meetings.

As elsewhere, and not least in the public service, there are serious challenges with the prevailing culture.

When recruitment and promotion are not always on merit; when enlightened leadership is often lacking; when poor pay becomes a justification for everything from owning matatus to the generation and sharing of bribes; when impunity reigns; then all the salaries and cars and computers in the world might make little difference.

I was led to reflect on all of this after being stopped by a policeman in town the other day.

It happens to all of us and usually when we are in the greatest hurry, as I was.

Not that we even remotely look like we’ve flouted any law, no.

Rather, it is their entrepreneurial instincts that lead our law enforcers to spot suitable revenue generating opportunities.

These days, the core competence of traffic policemen is in shaking down matatu and truck drivers, not to mention ordinary motorists, over some hoped-for technical infringement, however minuscule.

‘Pull over there,’ my tormentor barks, ‘Give me your licence.’

Stifling my frustration over this thoroughly disrespectful wasting of my time – and his – I tell him I need to get to an urgent meeting.

‘Please just let me go on my way,’ I plead humbly. ‘Park there,’ he instructs, ignoring me completely.

And so the battle of wits rages, as he goes on his fishing expedition around my vehicle.

How little knowledge you need, what limited skill, I say to myself, to trap your average motorist over some trifling misdemeanour, and then to lead your attack to its juicy conclusion.

When do you make your real move, to show you are open for business?

How do you appear to be just discharging your duty to see compliance with the Highway Code?

Whatever their acting skills, we readily see these roadside bullies for what they are: petty abusers of the power of a uniform.

This is what enables them to carry out daylight robbery, day after day – without which they would have to take us down lonely back alleys to get physical with us. As it is they proceed with impunity, in their all-too-predictable game.

Pragmatically, we play meek and remorseful, begging forgiveness for any ‘offence’, so as to avoid hours of further harassment at a police station or in court – or, which is the real purpose of their exercise, to escape you-know-what.

If we were to double the salary of our police, or even quadruple it, we’re not sure their behaviour or their priorities would change that significantly.

Some authorities on the subject have suggested that the price to be extorted would merely rise commensurately.

So what would it take to get our police officers to focus on the real bad guys, instead of wasting their time harassing the likes of you and me?

Some time ago an advertisement appeared seeking consultants to carry out a pilot culture transformation programme for the force.

I thought deeply about whether my firm should bid for it, but I wasn’t sufficiently confident that it would be taken seriously enough or that it would make much of a difference.

I don’t know if the initiative ever took off, but certainly the man who stopped me the other day wouldn’t have been one of its beneficiaries.

What would be needed to introduce a real sense of Utumishi Kwa Wote – more so given that the root cause of the hostile-aggressive behaviour is usually ‘Money From All’?

We know that in the police, as everywhere else in the public service, there are very good people at all levels heroically battling to do their very best – and often succeeding – under impossibly trying circumstances.

Genuinely struggling

We see leaders genuinely struggling to push back corruption and nepotism and tribalism and all the other pernicious –isms that hold back organisations from fulfilling their mandate with honour.

And we see many others lower down, whose personal values defy those of the prevailing toxic environments in which they operate, who don’t allow a terribly low standard of living to distract them from performing their duties as they should.

Our challenge is to strengthen and support the good people.

To recognise and promote them, so they can build and be part of strong institutions that operate with integrity.

And to make as much noise as possible about the need for empowered, positive leaders who genuinely and skilfully promote their organisation’s vision and mission, and live by healthy values… thereby acting as positive role models for their weaker brothers and sisters.

All this went through my mind as I headed back onto the gridlocked highway, among a vast convoy of great lumbering trucks and countless wild matatus.

Plenty of time in which to reflect on our boys in blue, and the awfully difficult challenge their bosses face.

meldon@symphony.co.ke