From a force to service: Hits and misses in police reforms journey

On July 29, the National Police Service launched a commemorative book whose publishing was overseen by the former Inspector-General Mr Joseph Boinnet, and which launch was attended by Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i and the current IG Hillary Mutyambai.

The coffee-table book, The National Police Service: From Force to Service catalogues the reforms the Service has gone through since its inception in 1920, as well as the internal and external challenges officers face along this journey.

Mr Boinnet, currently the Chief Administrative Secretary at the Ministry of Tourism, sits down with SATURDAY NATION Editor Wayua Muli to reminisce about his tenure at the helm of the Service and his experiences compiling the book.

What was the inspiration for the book, and how “hands-on” were you with it?

It was my personal project; I felt very strongly that we need to document the journey the National Police Service has taken since its creation in the early part of the last century. We had a duty to bequeath Kenyans a permanent record of what has been done since the Police was created because it was an evolutionary process, and it is ongoing.

The book is a very professionally done compilation of the journey the National Police Service has traversed since it was first formed as a Force in 1920. Tell us a little bit about the creation process.

When I got to my fourth year and my term limit was fast approaching, I had a chat with my communications people who told me they had amassed lots of information which they thought would be a good to compile into a book. I consulted with a few other colleagues and external consultants and they also thought it was a good idea.

We had actually planned to do something we had never done before, in the first week of December (2018), called the National Police Service Week. We thought it would be a good idea if we compiled something, in the form of a book and in video to be a permanent record of sorts.

We engaged a reputable publisher and some videographers, and we produced a video documentary which aired on a number of television stations that December. The work on the book, which essentially started in October, was also gathering momentum. By February 2019 we were done.

I left office in March 2019. The current Inspector-General (Mr Hillary Mutyambai) took over; he knew the book was in the works. Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i also knew. I also mentioned it to President Uhuru Kenyatta as I was leaving. Both of them were quite excited. The first 50 copies of the book got off the press in May.

Was the route to launch difficult?

We wanted to launch it in February but Covid came. So the CS said, ‘Let’s wait until Covid passes, I want to launch the book myself’. You see, we thought this was a thing that would disappear. But it’s still with us. So Dr Matiang’i finally said, let’s do it, all Covid safety protocols observed.

…and then the day before the launch of the book, whose core subject is reforming the police from a Force to a Service, officers were captured brutalising a Nairobi county MCA in a bit of fracas at City Hall. Did this discolour the event?

We need to be fair to the Service and to the citizens of Kenya by putting it in context. We had planned a week earlier, with the CS, to do the book launch on that particular day. Unfortunately, something happened the day before which then gave a very bad background to a very auspicious event.

Having said that, I wouldn’t say it is an indictment of the Police or their training, which has gone through several upgrades. I would say that on the whole, the vast majority of police officers do their job in strict conformity with established procedures and with Service standing orders.

There are also procedures for sanctioning those who step out of line. So it would be unfair to indict the Service and say the reforms it has gone through over the very many years have not produced the desired results. We cannot (point a finger at) he entire 100,000-strong service because of the mistakes of a few.

Speaking of training, tell us about your induction and the lessons you learned along the way.

I joined the police force in 1984 as a Cadet Inspector. We were considered recruits, although of a different category. We went to Kiganjo where the training was purely on police procedures; drill, musketry, a lot about law, management, leadership – because that’s what we were expected to be. Passing out as inspectors, we were expected to take charge of small police posts or important branches in a police station.

There was a lot of emphasis on learning on the job. So we went to a place called Mukogodo in Laikipia to be exposed to some field-craft, with a lot of simulations. I went back after a couple of years to undertake a course called Higher Training, to graduate from inspectorate level to Superintendent of the Police, with the expectation that when you graduate you will be in charge of a police division. There was a lot of emphasis on leadership, operational command and control, as well as liaising with other government departments.

Any further studies that informed your time as IG?

Thereafter I was also exposed to numerous courses locally and abroad, on a wide range of security issues, as well as going back to university on programmes related to national security. The last very important course I attended was at the National Security College in Australia which is the equivalent of our National Defence College here. They provide the same programmes but through Australian eyes.

This information must have come in particularly handy when designing the current curriculum for the Service:

It was God-sent. I arrived back from Australia in November 2014; I went off to the village to do some stuff for the family, then I got a surprise after Christmas; I had been nominated to be Inspector-General. That programme in Australia opened my horizons, my eyes.

What was the route to designing the current curriculum?

When I assumed office, I conducted an in-depth audit of the state of the police in 2015, to enable me to operate and fulfil my mandate as Inspector-General. So I commissioned a couple of studies very quietly, using the existing resources within the police. We discovered that one of the very serious gaps was in training. This gap was made much more urgent in that officers (were not equipped to deal with) the current threats to national security.

The threats had changed in a very dramatic way. We had terrorism, cybercrime, transnational crime like human trafficking, trafficking in drugs and fake and counterfeit goods; trafficking in wildlife products. Number two, there had been tremendous advancements in technology which impacted policing in a big way.

Third, I also realised there were very serious gaps in our officers’ understanding of the diversity in this country. For instance, and officer coming from Kitui and being posted to Lodwar would find the folks there to be quite different. They needed to understand that this country is diverse and there is unity in that diversity, and that we needed to serve our people equally.

The other very important thing was the new Constitution in 2010, which broadly expanded civil liberties. It created an urgent requirement that we go through some culture change in the way we police our people. Police had to undergo a change in mindset. For instance, back then, people would get arrested and nobody would tell them why. When you ask, you are told, ‘utasema mbele’ (you will speak in court). The new Constitution does not provide for ‘utasema mbele’. You have to sema sasa, hapa hapa. You are arrested, you are told why you are arrested, you are told you have your rights, then you are taken to a police station where you can get your bail. Those were the imperatives. The focus was to produce a police officer, fit and qualified to serve the Kenyan people in the 21st century and beyond.

How much hold did our colonial past have on police culture at the time you took office?

We certainly can’t run away from our history; we are where we are because of where we came from. Having said that, I want to agree with you that there is a lot of our policing culture that is borrowed from our history, the rationale for which is that the police forces were created by the colonial state to serve the colonial state. After independence, roles changed. The police forces became institutions to provide safety and security to the Kenyan people. But changing the mindsets, the attitudes, the ways of carrying out policing, is an evolutionary process. But I can very confidently say that the NPS serves the people of this country.

Back to the curriculum design; how did you identify the training gaps?

I created a small team of very brilliant officers and also requisitioned support from other national security agencies. We went around the country to see the difficulties our officers were going through, and soliciting views as to how we could improve.

The team also took an extensive tour of  Sweden, Egypt, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, India and South Africa, and also benefited from tremendous support from the US, UK, and Italian governments in designing the new programme. When they came back they retreated and designed a new training curriculum from the bottom up, right from when a new entrant joins the Service, up to the senior-most levels. We started off with a new cohort training under the new curriculum in 2017.

You are quite passionate about police reforms…

Yes, but to be clear, I did not start the reforms. I got the baton. The reforms process has been evolutionary, but it gathered momentum in 2002, with the Dr Willy Mutunga team. We had the (post-election violence) in 2007/8, we had the Kriegler and Waki commissions after that, the Rtd Justice Philip Ransley task  force in 2009, the Police Reforms Committee of 2013… so I had the privilege of getting the baton in 2015, running with it, then handing over to Mr Mutyambai in 2019.

What is different about this curriculum?

The methodology of delivery changed; we shifted from classroom style learning to scenario-based training. Now when an officer graduates, they know what to expect and how to handle that situation.

Number two, we introduced new modules, for instance, the place of the police in national security, so a police officer will know that his duty and function is a critical component of national security. It doesn’t matter whether he is on patrol, traffic duty or fighting cattle rustlers or terrorists; it is (still) a very important component of the provision of national security. Then we introduced other modules like terrorism and transnational crime, and a new one on cross-cultural studies, so that an officer will be versatile, ready and capable of operating anywhere in this republic.

Did you identify any other difficulties officers faced?

We realised officers had very, very serious difficulties in matters tools of trade. There were huge gaps in facilitating them to do their job competently and to the very best of their ability. Fortunately, the government had started the police modernisation programme in 2012. The government had allotted up to Sh10 billion a year to ensure the police acquire modern equipment.

I am very, very grateful to the President for his wisdom, having realised some of the serious gaps in policing was in things like vehicles – you remember the whole story of hatuna gari, hatuna mafuta? The vehicle leasing programme brought that to a stop and I am glad the programme has been a success, and is ongoing. So, that was one of the ways of addressing capacity gaps in procurement of equipment to ensure the police can perform their duties very well.

Also, as part of the culture change programme, one of the things we encouraged was building inter-institutional linkages, what is now known multi-agency teams. When we did the audit, we realised the majority of officers don’t understand how to work with other agencies.

Let’s talk about this hot-button topic, corruption in the police force. A good number of Kenyans are of the view that corruption is synonymous with the police…

I think it would be very, very unfair to state that corruption is synonymous with Police. It is not. It is a societal thing. And it is not confined to our country alone; it is a global thing.

Every society has corrupt activity of some sort, in various permutations. Go anywhere on earth and you will find some deviant activity of some sort. That’s why every country in the world has a criminal justice system, to get rid of the deviants and to put them in jail.

The long and short is, it is a few rotten apples spoiling the rest of the very good officers because the majority of the officers do their job in strict conformity with the law.