Creating a people-centred police service is my goal

What you need to know:

  • My agenda has been to create a Police Service that offers people-centred service for 21st Century Kenya.
  • Building a People Centred Police (PCP) Service demands Re-casting, Re-learning and Re-tooling of our policing system.

The promise of 21st Century Kenya is the idea that we can rise to become a middle-income country within our lifetimes and in turn bequeath our children a better country than we found it.

Our Constitution and the well-articulated Vision 2030 serve as our lodestone and captures the aspirations of Kenyans.

In order to achieve these ideals, a strong national security system is of the essence, and right at the core of our national security is the Kenya Police Service.

In accordance with the Constitution and the National Police Service Act the institution has embarked on a transformation to ensure public safety as well as national security.

To highlight the shift and illuminate my agenda, it is important to give a brief background of the changes within the Police Service over the past 50 years since we gained independence.

I have been privileged to serve for 35 in different capacities within the national security community and observed the evolution in the scope and sophistication of security threats, which have necessitated a continual process of redesigning and re-engineering our National Security architecture to mitigate them.

The first decade of the Kenyan republic saw among major threats the Shifta wars, the 70s saw the advent of bank robberies and terrorism in which Kenyans became victims of forces waging an international war that had nothing to do with them.

The Cold War of the 1980s brought about new security challenges, and with the end of the Cold War in the 90s, the advances in ICT ushered in non-traditional security challenges that included, a changing dimension of terrorism and other trans-national crimes such as drug and human trafficking, cybercrime, trafficking in animal trophies and illicit arms trade among others.

The 21st century has lately witnessed the rise of violent extremism that employ religion to achieve political ends.

PEOPLE-CENTRED

Based on this background, my agenda upon assuming office as the Inspector-General of Police has been to create a Police Service that offers people-centred service for 21st Century Kenya, that meets the needs of the Kenyan people and lays a stable foundation beyond this generational dispensation.

Building a People Centred Police (PCP) Service demands Re-casting, Re-learning and Re-tooling of our policing system.

We must re-cast our mandate and frame it within the new constitutional dispensation in which the basic rights of all citizens and those lawfully resident in Kenya are respected.

A high fidelity to the Constitution must guide us and our re-casting strategy will continue building on the current reforms but more specifically will involve creation of key partnerships, introduce an era of enhanced collaboration and effective communication since we are in the age of communication and a 21st Century Police Service must be a communicating service.

Creating an effective communication structure applies within the context of the Police Service, the players in the security community and with the Kenyan people. The ultimate goal is for us to understand each other, appreciate one another and work together towards the common goal of securing our nation.

Re-learning as an institution is also key. The changing dynamics in the threats facing us demand that the men and women tasked with protecting Kenya either learn new skills or improve on existing competencies.

Towards this end, we must re-design the police training curriculum to ensure it is in sync with the times we live in but more specifically to inculcate a sense of service to the Kenyan people by the Police.

Professional excellence is premised on constant improvement and it is my desire that every man or woman in uniform must participate in at least one customised needs-based training annually. The initial phase of this continuous learning programme will be focused on creating a culture of world-class service to the Kenyan people.

Re-tooling the Police Service will focus on creating a nimble Service with a shift from the era of Reactive Policing to Proactive Policing or Intelligence-driven Policing based on the collaborative leadership model.

The service must be able to know what to do before something happens and this can only happen when we create strong partnerships to enhance collaboration between the Kenyan people, the private sector and other security agencies— namely intelligence, police, judicial services and correctional services acting either individually or in community.

Suffice to add that an efficient 21st Century Police Service must be centred on collaboration with the Kenyan people it seeks to serve.

Re-tooling our approach to handling Terrorism, rising inter-ethnic tensions, impunity and organised crime will focus on partnership with various stakeholders, enhance incorporation of technology to digitise and synchronise police records, actively play our role of advising various arms of government on any policy changes required to secure our homeland, and above all continue engaging the relevant authorities with a view to ensuring that the terms and conditions of service for every Police Officer is improved and is commensurate with the demands of the 21st century Kenyan People-Centred Police Service.

The writer is the new Inspector-General of the Kenya Police