There is more that needs attention in our police than Pangani stinking cells
What you need to know:
- Ordinary Kenyans, however, were surprised that the so-called Pangani Six and Muthaiga Two, found their accommodation unfit for human habitation.
- The issue of the accommodation of officers remains a critical factor in the demotivation, indiscipline and disrespect in the Kenya Police Service.
- The police do the rough and tough work, especially at night, so that they may sleep safe and their businesses and property remain secure.
- When there is bad blood between police and the public, policing and, therefore, law enforcement suffers.
When eight legislators were held for four days in dirty, cold and stinking cells, their relatives, friends, colleagues and themselves were stunned and deeply disappointed. How, they wondered, could human beings be detained in such inhospitable accommodation?
Ordinary Kenyans, however, were surprised that the so-called Pangani Six and Muthaiga Two, found their accommodation unfit for human habitation. As far as they know, a police cell is naturally overcrowded, stinks and is deliberately designed to dehumanise.
One of the two females in the group volunteered to make available money for the refurbishment of the cell in which she was held. Her colleagues supported her.
Needless to say, the lawmakers spoke on the Friday they were released and last weekend.
They have since moved on and, indeed, the matter of the filthy cells shunted out of mind as one of their principals swiftly turned his attention and fire on the larger issue of the country’s security. That should not have happened. Here’s why.
One, the problem is not the cells in which the MPs were held, but all police stations around the country in which officers work and Kenyans in their custody are held. Why, pray, are stations often bereft of basic amenities, such as furniture and stationery, that officers need for their day-to-day work?
Two, the issue of the accommodation of officers remains a critical factor in the demotivation, indiscipline and disrespect in the Kenya Police Service. When families live in rooms separated only by roofing sheets, a lot is compromised and jeopardised in terms of interpersonal relationships, parenting and cultures.
Three, why do police stations not have toilets for inmates? Nothing could be more degrading, more humiliating, than one emptying one’s bowels in a bucket before fellow inmates and for the bucket to remain in the cell till the appointed time for emptying it.
Four, what is the relationship between police officers and civilians? The public will readily acknowledge that police do the rough and tough work, especially at night, so that they may sleep safe and their businesses and property remain secure.
DEMANDS BRIBES
But they are also increasingly suspicious of the officers who they regard as extortionate. Matatu operators, for example, time and again resort to strike action because police increasingly demand bribes with menaces. Police are guilty of abetting crime as, indeed, the current Economic Survey reports, serving officers were involved in 34 per cent, or in 24,647 of the 72,490, crimes reported to the same police last year.
There cannot be law when police violate the law. And, when there is bad blood between police and the public, policing and, therefore, law enforcement suffers.
And as evidenced at the recent anti-Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission picketing, police used live bullets on, and mercilessly clobbered, demonstrators, painfully reminding Kenyans that police bullets felled a significant number of the fatalities of the post-poll violence of 2007/8.
This ushers in point number five, which is that neither government nor opposition MPs appear keen on the on-going vetting of often unbelievably inarticulate senior police officers by the National Police Service Commission and how what is revealed impacts, or says about, policing in Kenya.
Does the commission also investigate the professionalism, training, competence and performance of the bumbling officers or is it just preoccupied with their unusually impressive bank accounts and frequent M-pesa transactions? In the same breath, what, so far, has been the impact of the civilian Independent Police Oversight Authority on policing in Kenya?
Last, put another way; the Pangani Six and Muthaiga Two should have inquired into the state of police reforms. An audit released in January by the University of Nairobi and the Kenya National Human Rights Commission, gave the process short shrift much to the chagrin of Inspector General Joseph Boinett. Have the regular, administration and criminal investigation units merged as required by law?
The audit was emphatic this had not happened. The best indicator that not much has changed is the poor quality of service to the public, the maltreatment of the public by police and the age-old distrust of police by public.
But why? Answering such questions is the work of legislators. Pangani’s filth should have triggered MPs into at least instigating for an immediate parliamentary investigation. When government subjects Kenyans to indignity Parliament must demand restitution. Will the Pangani Six and Muthaiga Two?