|
Building
Partnerships, Governance And Sustainability - The Key Role Of Municipalities
Community
Policing In EA - Particular Focus On Kenya
Introduction
For
the first time in independent Kenya, a new government has come into
power. We have moved away from totalitarianism, and this is enormously
exciting, but we are not yet democratic. In fact, we are now in
a "no mans land". In this cusp phase, Kenya could make
the drastic changes necessary to ensure that democratic principles
are entrenched, but we could just as easily slide back to repressive
rule. It is important for Kenyans to bear in mind three significant
points: first, experience from other countries that have gone through
transitions like Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, indicate that
when a new government comes into power, a small window of opportunity,
perhaps of one or two years, opens up where there is increased space
for popular engagement with government to redefine the rules by
which citizens will be governed. After that it's back to business
as usual; second, most of the personalities in the new government
were part and parcel of the old regime; and third, this government
has inherited a legal framework designed to perpetuate and support
despotic rule.
The
Kenya police in particular, has been groomed to function as an armed
defender of the establishment and not as a force required to render
service to the community. Professor Yash Ghai, at a CHRI conference
on police reform held in April this year, noted a "remarkable
continuity" from colonial times to the present, in terms of
the role and structure of the police force. The police now acknowledge
that its main purpose for years has been to prioritize, above all
else, the task of maintaining the patronage of the President and
those in power. They accept that the public perception that the
police force is brutal, corrupt, criminal, inefficient and politicized
is to a large extent justified.
Challenges
for Community Policing and Building partnerships
In
the new political order, the police have also committed themselves
to change. The Kenya police are in the final stages of developing
a reform strategy. This strategy has, as one of its main components,
crime prevention through community policing and building partnerships.
One of the main stakeholders in this enterprise would be the city
councils. However, there are several challenges that the police
will need to recognize and address, if they are to meet their objectives
in this regard.
The police have already recognised that they
have a very poor public image. This poor relationship will hinder
efforts to build sustainable partnerships. The adoption of community
policing and crime prevention measures involves at the very start,
recognition that a different approach to policing is being adopted,
which is focused on crime prevention, proactive and responsive
approaches to policing. This new approach directly contradicts
the current emphasis, which has been on law enforcement, with
aggressive policing being the main modus operandi. The existing
legal, administrative and other institutional arrangements support
the current approach to policing. An enabling legislative and
administrative environment needs to be established, as a priority,
to support community policing approaches and the development of
partnerships. Legal and administrative reform is needed for both
the police and the Local governments. The ongoing constitutional
review process provides an early opportunity for Kenyans to ensure
that principles defining how law enforcement and initiatives for
citizen safety will be conducted are enshrined. The constitution
can also set standards against which policing will be measured.
The Ugandan Constitution, for example, clearly places upon the
police, an obligation to work with communities and other stakeholders
in the performance of their duties, thereby establishing a constitutional
duty for the police to include stakeholders, like municipalities,
in the development of crime prevention and citizen safety strategies.
Constitutional reforms are fundamental but
broader legal transformation is key in bringing about an approach
to policing that is consistent with good governance and the building
of partnerships. Apart from the Constitution, the basic law governing
the police is the Police Act (Cap 84). The police also have internal
rules and regulations referred to as the Force Standing Orders
and the Police Regulations, which are not accessible to the public.
Then there is a plethora of legislation that the police are required
to enforce. Many of these laws, like the Vagrancy Act, the Preservation
of Public Security Act and sections of the Evidence Act, Criminal
Procedure Code, and the Penal Code to name a few, date back to
colonial times and were enacted with the sole intention of keeping
the "natives" at bay. Both the Kenyatta and Moi regimes
used these laws for the same purpose. They have no place in a
society where the citizen is sovereign and must be repealed or
amended. The Police Act for instance, is too vague. It does not
set out the structure of the police force, the procedure to be
followed for complaints against the police or the rules for the
use of force. The Act places no obligation on the police to make
any reports to persons outside the chain of command, either on
their activities, or their policies and strategies for the efficient
carrying out of their functions. Any information on these above
aspects can only be found in the Force Standing Orders and Police
regulations, which are secret documents! The Police Act must be
amended to clearly define the structure; role and functioning
of the police, in accordance with internationally recognized principles.
The Official Secrets Act, which sets stringent penalties for any
public officer revealing "secret" information, and places
the burden of proof on persons seeking information, must also
be repealed, to ensure an open environment, conducive to close
interaction between partners and sets an enabling environment
for the flow of information. This challenge is also true of local
authorities, which are currently not accountable to the public,
either.
The second big challenge facing the police as
they embark on a new approach to policing is the recognition of
the need for culture change within the force. The police force
needs to reorient itself towards citizens, and change their attitude,
that citizens are "outsiders" and should therefore not
be privy to, or question police action. The managers of any institution
sometimes draft policy without involving the people expected to
implement the policy, creating a gap between policy aspirations
and actual implementation. Uganda for example, adopted community
policing about 5 years ago. The UPF trained community liaison
officers, and established a family protection desk. Both desks
engaged local stakeholders, including the local governments, and
nurtured these relationships. However, the biggest resistance
to the notion of community policing came from within the ranks
themselves. The CID for instance, accused the community liaison
office for releasing too much information to the public, thus
encouraging people to commit more crimes. In the Kenyan case,
the police need to ensure that the people expected to implement
the policies appreciate the need for such policy and accept the
new approach to policing.
An approach that emphasises community policing
and partnership building requires that stakeholders accept the
legitimacy of the institutions and the approaches employed, as
well as the legitimacy of the individuals themselves. In this
respect, integrity becomes a key factor. The Kenya police, and
the municipalities, have to ensure that they are above reproach,
if partnerships for crime prevention are to become sustainable.
As such, strategies to improve the integrity of the institutions
must be developed and implemented.
Any
crime prevention strategy must be holistic. The institutions involved
in partnerships for crime prevention must be open to public scrutiny
and oversight - this is true for both the police and for municipalities.
Civilian oversight should however, be complementary to internal
accountability mechanisms, rather than take over these internal
mechanisms. Public accountability is one way of building integrity
in the institutions. The Crime prevention strategies, as well as
partnerships built must be subject to regular evaluations and reviews,
by all partners, to ensure that targets are being met.
The
way forward therefore, would be for municipalities, and the police,
to ensure that there is law reform, at the earliest, to create an
enabling environment for partnerships to flourish. The legal arrangements
should clearly define the roles that will be played by the different
institutions in crime prevention strategies. Clear policies regulating
such partnerships should also be developed.
A
strong Kenyan delegation team headed by the Minister for Local Government,
Hon. Karisa Maitha attended a successful International Conference
on Sustainable Safety: Municipalities at Crossroads. This took place
in Ethekwini, Durban, South Africa, 25-28th November 2003.
Click
here to read the minutes of the meeting
|
|
