Police resisting reforms, says Annan

A team led by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, has accused police of resisting reforms.

The Panel of Eminent African Personalities, which helped end the 2007 post-election chaos, said on Tuesday the changes had not been implemented nearly four years after they were proposed by the Waki Commission that investigated the violence.

At least 1,133 people were killed and nearly 500,000 uprooted from their homes in the chaos set off by a dispute in the presidential election results.

“The small measures taken in reforming the police are simply out of tune with people’s expectations.

“The country is approaching the next General Election when people’s confidence in the police is not high and when reforms in the force are yet to be seen,” the team said after its 12th meeting.

Although the government debated and accepted the Waki recommendations, fundamental reforms envisaged under the Kenya National Dialogue Reconciliation agreement have not been rolled out.

Key among them is the recruitment of more police officers to meet the UN standard of police-to-population ratio of 1:400.

It also faulted the government for failing to develop and implement a national security policy and to integrate the Administration Police and the regular police.

National security policy

“The transfer of officers from one station to another, or promotion to higher ranks, is not, in itself, sufficient to enhance reforms envisaged under Agenda Four and the Constitution,” the team noted.

The government, it said, needs to invest resources in police reform and give such changes political support.

‘‘Reforms (that) do not build the capacity of individual officers to carry out their mandate at the level of the local police station are cosmetic reforms,” it observed.

This situation is worrying in light of the role played by the force in the post-election violence.

The Waki report revealed that an estimated 405 people were shot dead by police in the chaos.

During the 2007-2008 post-election violence, police were accused of using excessive force in controlling protesters.

Some victims of sexual violence singled out members of various security forces, who were supposed to protect them, as being among their assailants, according to the Waki Report.

Other police officers were accused of shooting protesters indiscriminately without provocation.

The call for fast-tracking of police reforms comes at a time when there is heated debate in the country over the date of the coming General Election.

Some politicians favour polls in December this year, while others want them to be held in March next year in line with a decision made by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.