Police reforms in Kenya, case of National Police Service Commission

Abstract

The journey towards Police Reforms in Kenya started long after the attainment of Independence in Kenya. Following the emergency of the post election violence in Kenya in 2007/2008, several reports were authored that proposed that there was need for the reform of the security sector in Kenya. These reports proposed restructuring and formation of institutions to oversee the operations of the Police Service. This study looks at the progress made as far as police reforms in Kenya are concerned and specifically investigated the effectiveness of the National Police Service Commission which is one of the institutions that was borne out of the many recommendations made. The mandate of the Commission is to oversee the human resource function of the National Police Service a function that was earlier carried out by the National Police Service and the Public Service Commission of Kenya. The project outlines the background about the study area and the objectives of the study. It also contains literature review on the security sector reforms in Africa and specifically in Kenya. The study has three objectives all geared towards assessing the effectiveness of the National Police Service Commission as an oversight institution. The study also looked at the policy, legislative and institutional frameworks that have been put in place towards enhancing the realization of police reforms. The research came out with findings that the Commission may not have been very effective due to the many challenges that it has faced as a new institution. Some of these include lack of enough financial resources, lack of tools and human capital, lack of goodwill both from the political arena, the executive and the National Police Service itself. There is need for the Government to support the Commission in its operations through allocation of enough financial resources to ensure that the Commission actualizes its mandate