Since independence, Kenya has always been characterized by police brutality, which is still perpetuated through police harassment, use of excessive force, and silencing dissenting voices through state-sponsored abductions and killings. Although some police officers serve with honor and dignity, most of them display inimical misdemeanors that undermine the very core of good policing practices. This can be attributed to the dark-laden mental monuments they are indoctrinated to cherish in their training.
Breaking and destroying these monuments is the only way to reform police service. In Kenya, police training is meted on the old curriculum introduced by the colonial government and their successors. Moi inherited a country that still had the passion and anger to expostulate against a crooked regime, thereby curving a police force that would specifically deal with any uprising or dissidence. The police curriculum at that time was mainly designed around brutal tactics to enforce fear and obedience. Recruits were forced to understand that civilians are always disobedient and high-headed, thereby need to handle them with force. .
Upon assuming office, President Kibaki tried to improve police-civilian relations but the community policing program he had rolled out failed in its inchoate stage. Although he had good intentions, it was not easy to make officers shaped through monuments of brutality develop good relations with mwananchi. The Kenyan police curriculum exposes officers to a brutishly petrous program that dehumanizes them. After months of this torment, most officers come out wretchedly ruthless.
The training leaves them acrimoniously irascible, ready to spit venom at anything they deem disobedient. Besides, this torturous training equips them with feelings of righteousness; that their word is always right and mwananchi is always on the wrong. This training also indoctrinates them to believe that they have the blessings of the government in their ruthless actions. The current mental monuments in the police training colleges should be demolished to eliminate brutish elements meant to create monsters. While the police has undergone reforms such as IPOA to professionalize their service, little might be felt as long as the police training curriculum is not humanized. The nation will still produce monsters as long as the mental monuments enshrined in the police-training curriculum are not demolished.
The Columnist is a Research Consultant, Policy Analyst & Strategist
