Reforms in police force to include merger with APs

The regular and Administration Police should be merged to work independently of Government officials. This is one of the far-reaching reforms on policing proposed by the report.

Others include a new Code of Conduct for the police, setting up an independent police oversight group, a new complaints commission, a review of the ethnic balance within the force and an immediate complete audit of police management, structures, policies, practices and procedures.

The aim of merging the regular and Administration police into one force is to free the police from interference from the Government, as was the case during the General Election.

More than 1,000 Administration Police officers (APs) were trained and sent to act as agents of the Party of National Unity in Nyanza, instead of remaining neutral, says the report.

The new combined force should be headed by a professional police officer, says the Waki Commission, which looked into the violence that erupted following the disputed presidential election results.

“Given the revelations around the unlawful use of APs around the elections, the fact that the current structure is inextricably linked to the Provincial Administration system, and many of the senior officers are not police professionals, integrating the APs into the Kenya Police Service is a priority activity,” the report says.

Although Waki admits there would be difficulties in completing the merger, the “benefits will greatly outweigh the obstacles”.

Integration, says the report, will provide total independence from the Provincial Administration and separation from government oversight.

It will also provide a unified command and control of police officers, besides ensuring an across-the-board consistency and uniformity in all facets of policing.

The report proposes setting up a single and unified Police Services Board, one police commissioner, one strategic plan and a single integrated and well understood service delivery.

Under the proposals, all responsibilities currently undertaken by the Administration Police will be moved to the Commissioner of Police.

This will mean the Provincial Administration will not have any policing role.

The aim is to have a combined police organ to function in an “unencumbered fashion exercising constabulary independence in performing its functions.”

It will also ensure that all police services adopt an operational role, independent of Executive influence.

The experts propose other immediate reforms should include a complete audit of police management, structures, policies, practices and procedures.

They recommend that new and deliberate measures should be made to ensure the force reflects the national image, with all communities represented.

A new and modern Code of Conduct will be worked out while the Police Act will be reviewed.

“It should incorporate a review of issues relating to the ethnic and tribal balance and deployment within the Kenya Police Service,” says the report.

It recommends the creation of an Independent Police Conduct Authority Act and a complete review of the current police complaints and disciplinary processes within the Kenya Police Service.

The authority will report directly to Parliament through the minister of Justice and work under the authority of its “own Act and have sufficient powers to properly investigate all police conduct issues”.

The “authority” should be a judge of the High Court or Appeal Court.

The commission termed as hasty the decision by the Government to form a Police Oversight Board on September 4, 2008 and termed the move, to form the board before it had presented its report, as “unfortunate”.

“An opportunity to get it right has been missed,” said the report, adding that establishment of a well researched, legally based, professional and independent Police Conduct Authority would serve Kenyans better.

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Most of the dead were men

Kenyans might never know the exact number of people killed in the post-election violence. Although the Waki Commission determined that 1,133 people died, many other deaths were not reported.

“It is accepted that these figures may not fully reflect totals of people killed,” says the report, adding: “Some may have been buried without the knowledge of officials.”

Of the 1,133 people known to have died, 1,048 were men, 74 women and 11 children. The report says that 119 bodies remain unidentified in mortuaries.

It also says 3,561 people sought medical treatment, 557 of them for gunshot wounds.

“Whilst the commission acknowledges the possibility that some of those killed and wounded by gunshots may have been the victims of people other than the police, no evidence to this effect was received,” says the report.

The majority of the deaths took place in the Rift Valley, which the report terms an epicentre of the post-election violence.
The province accounted for more than half of the deaths (744), followed by neighbouring Nyanza, which recorded 134.

The districts of Uasin Gishu had 230, Nakuru 213 and Trans Nzoia 104. Nairobi had 125 deaths.

Shooting accounted for 962 casualties, of whom 405 died. This represented 35.7 per cent of the total deaths, “making gunshot the single most frequent cause of deaths during violence”.

In terms of communities, 278 Luos were killed, 268 Kikuyus, 163 Luhyas and 158 Kalenjins. “All ethnic communities that were involved in the violence sustained losses of life.

“The information counters feelings of exclusive victimisation, which all the ethnic communities that were involved in the post-election violence were found to harbour.”

The Rift Valley faced an extraordinary amount of violence between ordinary citizens. “Bows and arrows as well as machetes played a defining role in that violence,” it said.

It added: “For these improvised weapons to have achieved such a large number of fatalities demonstrates the concentration of the violence.”

In Nyanza and Western provinces, there were relatively low levels of fatality resulting from citizen-on-citizen violence.

The report showed that a total of 3,561 people suffered injuries. A total of 117,216 private properties were destroyed, while 491 Government properties were destroyed.