Kenya Pledges To Modernize Police Service

Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet told a security forum in Nairobi that the move aims at ensuring that the relationship between police and citizens is collaborative and not frictional. “We want to embrace partnerships so that we use all tools available to fight crime,” Boinnet said during a roundtable meeting on police transformation. He said for the police service to meet its obligations, win public trust and purge itself off historical baggage, it must re-organize and structure its operations in a bid to develop a new organizational culture in line with the country’s development agenda. The police chief emphasized the need for the change of mindset to accommodate the police transformation that cannot be ignored as they deal with the more enlightened public who also understand the law. The police transformation hinges around four key pillars: organizational culture to address corruption and integrity issues among other historical challenges in the police service, human resource management to create coherence in promotions, transfers, terminal benefits, health insurance cover and housing, among others. The other pillars are inter-institutional partnerships and linkages to enable the police to work effectively with other institutions such as government oversight agencies, human rights organizations, NGOs, civil society organizations among other offices that are involved in the justice, law and order environment. Boinett said infrastructure and capacity gaps pillar will address training and retraining of police officers to meet the current security challenges. Douglas Brand, National Police Service Advisor of Reforms, said that police officers have been accused of corruption in the past, which, he said, has severely dented the institution’s integrity of the police force and this has prevented it from achieving its mandate. He added that reducing corruption will require a multifaceted approach through process audits as well as implementing harsh penalties for those convicted of the crime. Enditem Source: Xinhua