(PHOTO CREDITS: University of Nairobi Research)
Why do Kenyan police mostly respond with brutality to many situations they are faced with? The images from Likoni in Mombasa County, of police beating citizens in line to board the ferry two hours before the 7PM -5AM curfew are a major disappointment.
At the time of writing videos of officers bragging about how they were in control and “would show the public who’s the boss” could be viewed in comparison to visibly agitated Kibra residents, in Nairobi County, threatening violent exchanges with police in violation of the curfew.
The new measures have been put in place to boost self-isolation, quarantine and other containment measures to help break the chain of infections from Covid-19 as the country heads towards the critical period.
Early police justifications were that their actions were in response to individuals planning to stone officers of the law. However, considering the amount of force unleashed, especially on many innocent civilians, such actions are totally unnecessary and counterproductive to Covid-19 prevention measures, if not criminal. A time such as this demands effective communication, coordination plus collaboration between government agencies and the Kenyan citizenry.
Many observers point to police as victims or culprits of an inherited colonial mentality biased against indigenes, poor training, manifestation of poor recruits metastasizing in an inherently corrupt institution. Yet the problem is a combination of this and more. What Kenyans constantly witness, is the clash between the needs for state security and the demands of human security, placed on a government normally operating in a reactive manner. Continually the interests of regime sustenance are at loggerheads with those desirous of accountability, necessary for harmonised stability of a democratic state.
Kenyan constitutional struggles, worked hard to create a new super structure guaranteeing citizen rights while maintaining democratic order. Nevertheless, the problem has been how to inculcate a new orientation for security agencies to act as a service to the people instead of an oppressive force. Back in 2014 one idea presented by Senator Kithure Kindiki was to create a new security agency named the National Security Emergency Service (NSES) through the National Emergency Security Bill to handle crisis situations. Still, this would not work if the orientation for implementation remains mostly reactive and mainly violates human rights in order to achieve security goals.
