Kenya Police Service and the root of public mistrust

During the early history of policing in England, individual citizens were largely responsible for maintaining law and order among themselves. Those who served as constables and justices of the peace did so on a voluntary. Shire reeves or sheriffs were employed full-time to oversee law enforcement within their areas in England and counties within the colonies.

This loosely-based system worked quite well for centuries, particularly in more rural and less populated regions. However, the late 1700s and early 1800s saw a major population explosion in the United States and England. Riots and civil unrest became common and it was increasingly clear that a more structured and permanent form of law enforcement carrying the authority of government was needed.

Sir Robert Peel, a Minister of Parliament who served as Home Secretary for the United Kingdom in the 1820s is widely regarded as the father of modern policing. In 1829, Peel established the Metropolitan Police Service in London. British police officers are still affectionately known as “Bobbies” in honour of his first name Robert.

Initially there was tremendous opposition to the idea of a centralised, professional police force as many citizens feared it would behave as another arm of the military. To assuage the fears of the citizens, Peel promulgated seven principles of policing:

The purpose of the police is to prevent crime and maintain order. Police depend on the approval and trust of the public to effectively do their jobs. The ultimate goal of policing is to achieve voluntary compliance with the law in the community. Police must be unwavering in their duties and adherence to the law, maintaining impartiality and avoiding the temptation to be swayed by public opinion. The use of force and physical control is to be used as a last resort, only when other forms of persuasion have failed. Police officers must remember that they, too, are members of the public and their purpose is to serve and protect the public. The true measure of the effectiveness of a police force is not the number of arrests or police actions taken, but the absence of criminal conduct and violations of the law.

Peel took other measures to ensure that there was a clear distinction between the police and the military such as blue uniforms, which were in stark contrast to the bright red of the Royal armed forces. In addition, the police were forbidden to carry guns, and at all times the importance of maintaining the public trust was impressed upon members of the force.

In Kenya, before the advent of colonial occupation, there was also a form of community policing. Although each community had armed militia or tribal warriors, their purpose was to repulse external aggression and protect the boundaries and assets of the community. Maintenance of law and order was by and large obtained through peer pressure from family and clan members, with justice being meted out by a council of elders.

The Kenya Police traces its origins to the days of the Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC) in 1887, who created a small armed force to guard their warehouses along the coast. The force comprised mainly Indian officers and a skeleton staff of African junior non-commissioned officers generally known as “Askaris”.

When the Kenya Uganda Railway was completed in 1902, the Railway Police Unit was established to protect the property and staff of the railway with detachments being stationed in Mombasa, Nairobi and Kisumu.

In 1906, the Police Ordinance was enacted to create a new force in 1907, the Nairobi Mounted Police within the jurisdiction of the East African Protectorate. The force was structured along military lines and training was military in nature. The colonial police force was made up of British and Indian recruits in senior ranks and Africans in the junior ranks.

In the meantime, the Village Headman Ordinance had been enacted in 1902 as a means for the colonial administration to penetrate native areas and bring the African into the money economy, enforce tax collection, control livestock movement, regulate agriculture, supply and mobility of labour and other social-economic programmes. The village headman relied on local “toughies” and bullies to effect the often-unpopular policies of the colonial government.

These bullies took on the role of Native Police and being untrained, used very crude methods on civilians to enforce compliance. Thus, from the outset, the perception of a policeman in the mind of the African, was that of an agent of oppression rather than one of protection.

When Kenya was declared a British colony in 1920, the Kenya Police Service was established. The practice was that the senior British and Indian officers lived outside of the police stations amongst other civilians, while the African junior ranks lived within the precincts. In 1929, the Tribal Police Ordinance was enacted to give legal backing to the native police who were also resident in the respective chief’s camp. This separation of law enforcement agents from the community further reinforced the feeling of “them against us” which has persisted to this day.

The situation was exacerbated during the State of Emergency in 1952 when the Police was used to harass civilians and protect loyalists.

Although the British and Indian senior officers were phased out and replaced by Africans after independence, the perception of the police among Kenyans did not change, neither did the squalid living conditions of the officers in police lines.

The recent agreement by the National Treasury to pay house allowance to 70,000 junior officers so that they can afford housing in civilian communities is a step in the right direction in changing our perception of the police and giving them a much-needed morale booster, alongside other measures.