By Charles Odhiambo (African Times Guest Writer)
Is police work becoming a major ingredient of
the political recipe in Kenya? We live in
interesting times where every player in the
Kenyan political class feel that the police can
never be termed ‘professional’ unless and until
they are supporting and furthering their
individual agenda.
As such very senior and respectable leaders
have continued to mislead our people to think
that they should only obey laws, rules or
regulations because they are doing so for the
police hence it is only here in Kenya that
motorists would not obey any of the traffic rules
unless there is a uniformed police officer in
sight.
Even during the current Covid 19 pandemic, the
police service has to extensively be involved in
enforcement of simple regulations against the
desire of the medical experts.
The police has to be present even to guard the
quarantine centres to prevent those who
already know they are positive for the virus
from wilfully attempting to go back to the
society.
A time has come for responsible Kenyans to
self critique and ask themselves whether if they
were to replace the current service we have they
would do any better than them in the current
circumstances.
To begin with, the police is a disciplined service
and thanks to this that they are able to cope.
This is because police work could well be the
most challenging profession you ever will come
across.
Aside from the trauma associated with the
scenes encountered in the course of rendering
their services, the poor state of the social
amenities at their disposal which makes the
quality of their stay degrading or too expensive
to afford for those who opt to get privately
owned services, the constant threat to their
lives and that of their family members, they
also have to deal with an unappreciative society
with an uncaring attitude towards them all
thanks to some of our existing leaders.
They do not understand that except to the
extent that police officers are well trained on
discipline, they are also Kenyans like any other
Kenyan, they shoulder responsibilities like any
other because they have families to take care of
and above all they also break down emotionally
and at times they need professional help.
Remember, they may be trained officers but
they get married to and live with civilian
population apart from the fact that they too
bring up civilian population in the name of
families.
The political class should therefore know better
that any disciplined service duty is to support
the Government of the day and create a
conducive environment for them to deliver on
their promises to the citizenry.
This is to say they are completely apolitical
meaning in the cycle of policing, we have police
officers who have served all the regimes since
independence and they have been faithful to all
of them.
To direct your anger to the disciplined services
is like to ‘expect a hoisted flag not to sway in
the direction of the wind’ because tomorrow if
you make it to that ‘Government of the day’, you
are assured of their support.
But as if this is not enough, we are observing
very dangerous precedents by the political
class that out rightly make nonsense of
professionalism in police work. Look at this,
almost all political leaders today withdraw their
personal security from the National Police
Service.
These are police officers seconded to them but
still remain under the command of the
Inspector General meaning they retain all their
powers as police officers, then the same IG
directs that a member of the political class
needs to be arrested for an alleged offence,
sends another team of officers to arrest the
politician with armed security without first
withdrawing them and the result? We have
casualties during the arrest? Why? Every police
officer feels they have to deliver on their
assignments.
Why not order the already provided police
officers who know the movement of this
politician to arrest and deliver him/her to the
nearest police station?
‘What is good for the goose, is good for the
gunder’, therefore it’s important to know that
disciplined forces will always give their support
to the Government of the day whose head is the
president and the Commander in Chief of all
armed forces and that to play bad politics and
in the process break laws and or regulations
and expect to see no action taken or when it’s
taken, blame them for ‘unprofessionalism’ is
like to expect a tortoise to climb a tree.
Let us not foster confusion in the police service
because it will definitely lead to setting up of
one unit of the service against the other and
because they are armed, easily lead to
casualties.
My advice to the political class is that you
should never make the police part of your
strategy and if you do, you know where it will
lead you therefore you should stop the ‘blame
game’. To the police officers, ‘ remain true to
your oath of allegiance’ and ensure
professionalism at all times.
(Charles Odhiambo is the Director, Crimesight Solutions)
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