References: Appointments at the very top of law enforcement agencies (commissioners of police, prisons, intelligence, etc.) are political, even if the candidates are professionally qualified. The current police commissioner was sourced from the armed forces, despite the fact that several senior career police officers could have taken the job.

Other middle-level appointments in the agencies are handled by respective service commissions. Recruitment of the junior uniformed cadre is done through an open field exercise in which applicants with appropriate paper qualifications go through rigorous physical exercises. However, the shortlisting of candidates for the interviews is often fraught with corruption as politicians and senior officers within the agencies pressurize for their preferred candidates to be interviewed and absorbed.

See a discussion on a recruitment scandal at [ LINK ]

Also see similar concerns with the army, at [ LINK ]

References: The budgets of law enforcement agencies are voted through Parliament like all other government departmental budgets. While elite elements of law enforcement agencies like the National Security Intelligence Service and the Tourism Police Unit have adequate and timely resources, other elements like the regular Kenya police and Kenya prisons are visibly resource-constrained.

Since 2003, the NARC government has invested substantially in improving the living conditions of junior police officers in barracks that had been atrocious, yet these efforts have not been widespread with officers in the smaller towns and rural areas continuing to live in sub-standard conditions. More resources are required to improve the dress of officers, while operational budgets also need to improve so that members of the public are not asked to pay for security services, such as fueling a police vehicle or buying airtime to get the police to investigate a complaint.

References: Given the nature of the recruitment process, and in light of the fact that these agencies are funded by and serve the government, their operations are substantially politicized. This was quite apparent during electioneering ahead of the Dec. 27 general election. While police bias may not have been apparent or rampant, isolated instances like the last-minute cancellation of a permit for an opposition rally illustrate the force's vulnerability to political manipulation.

After the peace accord that ushered in the Grand Coalition Government, a major sticking point was how to share powerful ministries, a key one being Internal Security, which is responsible for the police and state intelligence services.

References: Within government, there used to be the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission and the Kenya National Commission of Human Rights to handle such complaints. Now, these will be handled by the newly launched Public Complaints Standing Committee, even if people continue going to the former, with which they might have developed some rapport. Outside the government, there are quite a number of civil society organizations that handle such complaints, including Kituo Cha Sheria and Kenya Human Rights Commission. The Kenya police has itself launched a community policing scheme, the credibility of which depends on the police ensuring the trust of the community.

References: The Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) and the Kenya National Commission of Human Rights (KNCHR) respond to public complaints more or less immediately. However, action against errant officers might take some time, especially if it involves litigation. On the other hand, the police might close ranks and decide that nothing is being done about the complaint. There are numerous instances in the KACC quarterly reports in which police officers have been indicted for soliciting bribery, the standard evidence being treated money given to the complainant by KACC to hand over to the officer. However, the police commissioner's reaction to KNCHR's allegation of 500 extra-judicial killings is an illustration of the force closing ranks to protect their own.

References: Anti-Corruption and Economic Crisis Act (Section 7).

References: The Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission's (KACC) mandate given by Section 7 of its Act provides for investigations into allegations of corruption by law enforcement officials. KACC, for example, investigated reports about bribery during the police recruitment exercise of 3,000 officers, which was subsequently canceled. Sixty senior officers managing the exercise were promptly suspended. See "Bribes paid to join Kenya police," by The Journal of Turkish Weekly, Dec. 16, 2005: [ LINK ]

References: Besides the president's constitutional protection under Section 14 from criminal and/or civil proceedings while in office, and the protection afforded diplomats under the Geneva Convention, no one else in Kenya is by law immune from prosecution.

References: The Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) returns reveal many instances in which police officers have been prosecuted for criminal offenses such as corruption. However, other categories of serious crime by police officers go unpunished primarily because these involve the police investigating their colleagues. For example, suspects have been physically and sexually assaulted in police custody with impunity.

Peer Review Comments: A number of CSOs have documented how the police tortured people and raped women while quelling strife during the post-election violence in Kenya in January 2008.

Sources: Kenya National Commission of Human Rights (KNCHR), media reports (Daily Nation, Standard and Kenya Times newspapers).