World Police Encyclopedia

(Note: Sample material is taken from uncorrected proofs. Changes may be made prior to publication.)

Kenya

Background Material
The Republic of Kenya, sometimes referred to as the "cradle of mankind," is situated along the Indian Ocean and the East African littoral and is bordered by Sudan and Ethiopia. It has an extensive and complex history that dates backs many centuries. The nation's strategic location has attracted numerous foreigners, including people from the United States, England, China, Germany, Portugal, and Arab nations. Like most of its fellow African nations, Kenya has had an abundance of social, political, and economic problems. Many of them were a result of it being an English colony from July 1, 1895 to December 12, 1963
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Called the East Africa Protectorate until July 1, 1920, Kenya became the nation's official name when its status was changed from protectorate to colony. Led by founding president and liberation fighter Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya gained its independence on December 12, 1963 and became a republic exactly one year later on December 12, 1964. Following Kenyatta's death in 1978, Daniel Toroitich arap Moi assumed the presidency.

After Kenya had existed as a de facto one-party state from 1969 until 1982, the Kenya Africa National Union (KANU) imposed itself as the country's exclusive legal political party. Opposition factions failed to dislodge KANU in 1992 and 1997 elections that were characterized by fraud and violence. Among catastrophes that have plagued Kenya in recent years were the terrorist bombings in 1998 and 2002, and the devastating drought of 1999 and 2000 that severely affected the nation's agricultural production while creating a necessity to ration water and energy.

As East Africa's regional hub for finance and trade, Kenya has long been troubled by judicial corruption as well as by its dependence on several fundamental commodities whose low costs have prevailed. IMF loans were appropriated in 2000 to aid Kenya with it drought problems, but were discontinued in 2001 as a sanction against the nation for failing to institute anti-corruption measures. Strong rains in 2001 did little to offset the impact of weak commodity prices, infectious corruption, and low investment, all of which served to restrict economic growth in Kenya. And with the irregular rain patterns, political infighting, and other critical problems that ensued in Kenya in 2002, economic growth was further retarded. Campaigning as an anti-corruption candidate, Mwai Kibaki was elected as Kenya's president in 2002. Though signs of progress-increased donor support and stepped-up anti-corruption campaigns-were detected in 2003, creating a slight growth in economic activity, Kenya remains a quagmire of social, political, and economic turmoil.

The population of Kenya is 32,021,856 (July 2004 est.). It has an area of 582,650 sq. km (land: 569,250 sq. km; water: 13,400 sq. km. The capital is Nairobi. Kenya has the following ethnic composition: Kikuyu 22%, Luhya 14%, Luo 13%, Kalenjin 12%, Kamba 11%, Kisii 6%, Meru 6%, other African 15%, non-African (Asian, European, and Arab) 1%. Languages spoken include English (official), Kiswahili (official), and numerous indigenous languages. The religions practiced include Protestantism (45%), Roman Catholicism (33%), indigenous beliefs (10%), Islam (10%), and other 2%.

The GPP purchasing power parity is $33.03 billion (2003 est.). The per capita income is US $271. Major economic activities include agriculture, industry, mineral resources, and tourism.

Contextual Features
The Republic of Kenya, as its name implies, is a republic consisting of executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. The nation's president serves as both the Chief of State and Head of Government. The president is elected by popular vote and serves a five-year term. However, a run-off election is held if no candidate receives at least 25 percent of the popular vote in each of at least five of Kenya's seven provinces and one area. The president appoints the Vice President and a presidential cabinet. A unicameral National Assembly (or Bunge) comprises Kenya's legislative branch of government. It is a 224-seat body, of which 210 members are elected by popular vote. Another 12 members are appointed by the president and selected by the parties in proportion to their parliamentary vote totals. These members carry the title (or label) of "nominated" members. Ex-officio members occupy the final two seats of parliament.

Kenya's court system is comprised of a Court of Appeal, a High Court, and Magistrate Courts that serve at two levels. The majority of Kenya's civil and criminal court cases are initiated in the Magistrate Courts. In Kenyan courts, judges determine the fate of convicted defendants in criminal cases. However, in the more serious murder and treason cases, up to three assessors can be designated by the High Court's deputy registrar to sit with the judge.

The Kenyan president holds executive power over some of the nation's most prominent and powerful appointees, including the Chief Justice, the Attorney General, and the judges of the High Court. The Chief Justice is a member of both the Court of Appeals and the High Court. Courts martial are employed to try individuals in the Kenyan military, who may appeal their verdicts by way of military court networks. Traditional and customary courts are not a part of the Kenyan court system; however, Kenyans who enter into matrimony may choose either customary or national law, and in the event of disputes, the type of law that is applied is determined by the courts. The impoverished nature of Kenyan society negates access to legal counsel for most Kenyan citizens, and only in capital cases do defendants gain access to government legal representation.

Crime is a major concern in virtually every Kenyan city. It is particularly high in Nairobi, Kisumu, and Mombasa, as well as along coastal beach resorts. Depending on the offense, criminal offenses in Kenya are classified as either felonies or misdemeanors. Sanctions for youth seven to twelve years of age are significantly more lenient than those designated for older individuals, and no one under the age of seven are criminally liable for their actions. The maximum and minimum penalties for felonies in Kenya are death and three years imprisonment respectively.

Among the most common crimes in Kenya are incidents-many of them involving tourists-that include pocket picking, muggings, carjackings, burglarizing hotel rooms, thievery from automobiles, residential burglaries, con artistry, and highway banditry. According to several sources, including a study conducted by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) and the Technology Development Corporation, which works in underprivileged areas to expand their access to technologies, the majority of crimes reported by the police take place in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. In addition, Crime in Nairobi, a 2002 study, revealed that among 10,500 individuals interviewed, nearly 4 in 10 people had been robbed, and nearly 2 in 10 people had been victims of physical assaults.

The corrections system in Kenya is overseen by several different organizations, including the Kenya Prisons Service, the Children's Department, and the Probation Department of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Corrections staff are employed by the civil service system and are paid on a level comparable to that of Kenya's police. The Prisons Training School, located in Nairobi, is the institution where corrections personnel are trained. In Kenya there are both general and special purpose prisons, approved schools and remand houses for youth offenders, and detention camps (temporary barracks or tent compounds, work camps, prison farms, etc.). Overcrowding in all correctional facilities has long been one of the most salient problems characterizing Kenya's corrections system, in part because the majority of Kenya's prisoners fall under the category of "for safe custody" and includes vagrants, debtors, and individuals held in pretrial or preventive detention.

Relative to other developing nations, Kenya's corrections system is more humane and has embraced rehabilitation as a penal policy. Inmates are encouraged to learn trades such as tailoring, metalwork, carpentry, and shoemaking. There are also literacy training and education courses available to prisoners. Except for inmates sentenced to life in prison or those under preventive detention, sentences may be reduced by a third for good behavior. Periodically, there is a review of the records of all prisoners serving sentences of seven or more years. Reduced sentences are sometimes recommended to the president by a review board, and inmates serving long sentences may have their sentences reduced by three months for good behavior.

After being released from prison in Kenya, individuals may turn to the probation service program to aid them in their transition back into general society. There are also halfway houses in both Nairobi and Mombasa, and the Prisoners' Aid Society, operating in conjunction with probation and parole officials, to help former inmates. The Society, which was established in the 1950s, aids ex-prisoners with small loans, helps them to buy materials for work, and assists their families until they can resume their roles as heads of household.

Police Profile

Background
The contemporary Kenyan police system was created and has evolved, largely, as a result of a variety of influences that England had on the whole of East Africa. It was transformed during the colonial period as the nation's social conditions and problems matured. To protect their interests along the caravan route from Mombasa to Uganda, the British Imperial East Africa Company employed a defense operation in 1887 called Askaris, composed of armed guards, and developed, ultimately, to become Kenya's first organized security force.

By 1896, Kenya had put in place a police force with headquarters in Mombasa, and by 1901 it included a variety of resources and specialized personnel, including a European superintendent, several European, Indian, and Somali inspectors, and 150 lower ranked individuals. Smaller police stations were positioned in Vanga, Rabai, Malindi, Lamu, and Kismayu. In 1897, the Uganda Railway Police, another independent law enforcement unit, was established to protect workers who were constructing railroad lines.

Police forces in Nairobi and Kisumu were also among the early systems. All of these affiliations were merged in 1902 by European colonizers to form the British East Africa Police, headed by Inspector General C. G. D. Farquhar. In 1920, the organization's name was changed officially to the Kenya Police. The next half-decade witnessed the establishment of no less than 88 police stations and outposts scattered throughout the country. During the era of the Mau Mau uprising, the Kenyan police force doubled its size to 13,000 officers, while maintaining a reserve force of about 9,000 police.

Authority over the police force was ceded to the Kenyan government after the nation became an independent state. By the mid-1980s, Kenya's police force had grown to 19,000 and included female officers. In addition, the force included administrative and reserve personnel. General duty officers, a General Services Unit (GSU), and the Railways and Harbours Police were included among the organizational structure of Kenya's police operations. There were also specialized units that included the Criminal Investigative Directorate (CID), the Intelligence Directorate, the Police Air Wing, and stock theft and dog units.

There has not been any significant change in the British-influenced police grade structures since Kenya's pre-independence period. Cadet assistant superintendents to commissioners constitute the range of appointed officers, cadet assistant inspectors to chiefs encompass inspectorate officers, and constable to sergeant comprises subordinate officers. The rank and pay scale of the Administrative Police are subordinate to those of the regular Kenya Police. For example, the ranks of the former includes only those of constables and non-commissioned officers. Because they are part of the civil service system, Kenya's police are not permitted to join trade unions. That has not resulted in many serious problems, however, because police salaries are considered fair when compared to local standards.

Kenyan Police wear military-style tropical uniforms-blue-gray short-sleeved shirts worn with either long or short pants and garrison hats (plastic helmets for the lower-ranked personnel). GSU officers wear green camouflaged jackets and deep red berets. Like the British, uniformed police in Kenya's urban areas carry batons only, but are issued firearms in emergency situations. Plainclothes officers are issued pistols, while officers in the outlying rural areas are equipped with rifles.

Demographics
Kenya's police force, including administrative and reserve staff, consists of both male and female officers. The majority of the force-about 76 percent-is made up of rank and file officers, with senior rank officials and inspectors constituting about eight percent and noncommissioned officers representing about 16 percent respectively of the organization. Those respective proportions have remained relatively constant since Kenya's independence. Relative to other developing nations, the Kenya police technical staff is large. About one in three individuals employed by the Kenyan Police force are assigned to technical and support jobs.

Organizational Description and Functions
The paramilitary GSU, a domestic mobile security operation, created and specially trained in 1953 to deal with the opposition Mau Mau faction, remains a heavily armed force with Bren guns, rifles and light mortars. Its various units are strategically situated throughout Kenya to deal with civil disturbances. With units in Nairobi, Nakuru, and Kisumu, GSU forces are self-contained and operate in the field and are provided with their personal equipment, transportation vehicles, and communication systems.

Known throughout Kenya as the "formation," and with units in Mombasa, Lake Victoria, and Kisumu, the Railways and Harbors Police is responsible for dealing with violations associated with land or transportation lines or installations. Headed by an assistant commissioner, this special force is divided into three divisions and consists of about 1,000 constables and 300 officers and noncommissioned officers, including an independent criminal investigation division known as the "formation crime branch."

All tasks associated with the investigations of crimes and maintenance of criminal files falls to the CID, a force of plainclothes detectives. It operates throughout Kenya's various police headquarters, and its chain of command extends to the national headquarters. The Intelligence Directorate is charged with gathering intelligence related to domestic issues and subversive criminal activities.

The Police Air Wing provides communications, supply, and evacuation services and performs reconnaissance operations. Developed in 1959 and first utilized in the mid-1960s during the shifta insurgency, the Air Wing unit is comprised of several aircraft. Among its most highly regarded capabilities is its ability to operate under harsh conditions from very unrefined airstrips.

Originally known as the Tribal Police, the Administrative Police was organized to supplement Kenya's regular police force. The Administrative Police operates in rural Kenya where regular forces and police stations and posts are absent. Recruits are generally enlisted from the same areas where they serve. Centrally involved in both the arrests of criminal suspects and the maintenance of public order, indigenous chiefs and sub-chiefs assume daily operational authority over Administrative Police officers. However, administrative control over the force remains the domain of the district commissioner, and the provincial commissioner provides general directions for the officers. Because murders and other serious crimes are considered beyond the capability of the Administrative Police, Kenya's regular police are usually called upon to handle such incidents.

An all-volunteer unit created in 1948, the Reserve Police also serves as a support force to the regular police in emergency situations. Members serve minimum terms of two years and must be at least 18 years of age. Unlike the standing Administrative Police force, the reserve officers constitute an ad hoc force of sorts that is only operational when needed. The power of the Reserve Police as a law enforcing entity reached its height during the insurgency of the Mau Mau when its ranks totaled around 9,000. It is now a mere fraction of that number.

The police headquarters in Nairobi serves as the core of Kenya's police communications operations, which is considered to be among the most technologically advanced systems on the African continent. Well equipped to sustain armed attacks, the headquarters is a self-contained bunker installation that serves as an emergency national communications and operations center. In 1975, a VHF communications network was established, allowing patrol cars traveling majors thoroughfares throughout Kenya to connect with the central control in the police headquarters. There is also a regional Interpol police communications system that opened in Nairobi in 1973.

Complaints and Discipline
International and domestic accusations of immorality, corruption and human rights violations against the Kenyan police were rampant by the early 1990s. Those complaints have ensued into present-day Kenya. In one incident, the police killing of three college students over a two-day period in late 1996 prompted President Daniel arap Moi to appoint Duncan Wachira as police commissioner. Wachira's primary task was to refine the image and competency of the Kenyan police. However, minimal progress has been made, and many Kenyans citizens still list the police among their greatest fears.

Police Education, Research, and Publications
Recruiting teams enlist police recruits on a national voluntary basis. Although Kenya's national policy calls for an ethnically diverse police force, it is widely believed that the Kikuyu dominate Kenya's police force in the same manner as they do in other public service jobs. There has been a steady rise in the overall educational level of police recruits, including an increase in the number of high school and college graduates who apply for police jobs in Kenya. Generally, the social status of the country's law enforcement personnel is good, but their overall status has suffered some as a result of their tax collection practices.

Established in Kiganjo-near Nyeri-in 1948, the Kenya Police College serves as the primary institution for the training of police recruits and officers as well as for teaching courses for reservists. In addition, there are several other institutions-both inside and outside of the police establishment-that provide specialized instruction in policing. Police personnel from the CID enroll in courses in Nairobi at the Criminal Investigation Directorate Training School. Police communications personnel study and train at the Kenya Polytechnic Institute, and there are provincial training centers where refresher and other kinds of training are conducted, including instruction in part-time literacy and continuing education courses for field personnel. The Administrative Police enroll in six-week courses at the Armed Forces Training College at Lanet, near Nakuru, in the Rift Valley. Their studies include basic refresher training and weapon familiarization.

Although some Railways and Harbours Police officers are sent away to the Railways Training College for specialized training, the majority of the officers take refresher and technical courses at their own training centers. The Kenya Institute of Administration is the site where senior police personnel receive management and supervisory training.

—Thomas S. Moseley and Ihekwoaba D. Onwudiwe

Bibliography

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