The conference provided delegates with the opportunity to exchange their experiences of policing throughout Eastern Africa and to plan for higher levels of police accountability and effectiveness in the region. Participants recognised that police effectiveness depends upon police legitimacy in the eyes of the community; and that communities must understand the role and challenges that police face in order to ensure that that the publics’ security needs are met. The conference covered three key themes that are particularly relevant to the current context of policing – elections and police accountability, counter-terrorism and police accountability, and crime and police accountability. Delegates noted that “while there was a lot of variation in these experiences across the region, there were also similarities in the opportunities and challenges to promoting police accountability and effectiveness.”

Delegates proposed several points of action. They called for engagement with the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights in developing a specific focus on independent civilian policing oversight mechanisms, including civilian participation, as per its resolution at its 40th session; support of ongoing dialogue with international and regional mechanisms and awareness raising and engagement with media to accurately report all sides of community and police experiences. Participants also agreed to lobby for public and political support to promote the establishment of effective oversight mechanisms and called on governments to support and encourage the engagement of the police, civil society and other actors towards realising police effectiveness and accountability.