WHAT IS EATING KENYA POLICE

EX-COPS TURNING TO CRIME IS A
DELIBERATE ACTION BY THE
GOVERNMENT The Police have
threatened they
intend to start tracking down and profiling all former officers who
either resigned or were
dismissed from the force. I didn’t
know we have so many idle
officers to run around after ex-
cops with clipboards. Call it what you want but I call it shitting in
your plate then complaining that
the food tastes and smells awful.
The Police Force is the worst
mismanaged employer in the
entire Kenyan Government. Labor rights there are unheard of and
demanding them will get you in
hot water. Most of the senior
officers today
were hired in past regimes when
education was merely an added advantage. Importance was
given to who you know, how
much you have, your running
ability, flat soles, straight arms,
no marks and a full set of teeth.
Promotion could always be bought, indiscriminately given or
awarded by ones ability to
march. As a result, today we have
grey haired neanderthals who
run the national security organs
like their bedrooms. Senior officers rape all labor
laws as a means to intimidate
their juniors. Newly posted heads
are known to sack several juniors
so as to be ‘felt’ and feared. The
Kenya Police Force is notable for sackings at the whim of
power-hungry bosses with
disregard for the rule of law.
Many have been sacked from the
Force for petty allegations that
would do with warnings and lesser punishments. This stinks of
impunity and gross abuse of
power. Your guess is as good as
mine
where these disgruntled ex-
officers go. Woe unto you if you have no ‘godfather’ because your
Appeal Letter will gather dust at
Police Headquarters for years. I
see no reason as to why an
appeal should be pending for
more than 12 months. But they take years if you know
somebody, decades if you know
nobody. Meanwhile the officers
assigned to the disciplinary board
continue drawing a salary for
doing nothing. Yet some former officers are
willing to rejoin the Force and
exercise what they learn at
Police college in a positive way.
Drafters of the law were not mad
when they put the following as appropriate punishments:
 

• a) Reprimand,
• b) Suspension,
• c) An order of restitution, d)
• Stoppage of salary increment,
• e) Reduction in rank, f) Dismissal from the service,
• g) Combination of the above.

We even have fines, extra
training (refresher), extra duties,
interdictions, suspension and
removal. Before awarding sentence one
must consider the record of the
accused, trivial nature of the
offence and extenuating
circumstances under which the
offence was committed. The Constitution allows an
accused person to the benefit of
the LEAST severe of the
prescribed punishments. But in
the Police, if you know nobody,
you get the harshest sentence even on your first accusation. You
get dismissed without prior bad
record. Has it solved anything? It
simply transfers the problem to
society then police bosses start
crying that crime is on the increase and they will run around
like headless chicken wondering
what went wrong. Dismissals
ought to be the very
last resort but even then, after
following the laid down legal procedures. Not settling grudges
and vendetta. A weird case is of
officers who
were sacked for seeking
education. They got permission
from Headquarters to pursue degree courses but weeks to the
final exams, they got transferred
to disrupt their education. Upon
protesting the transfers, they got
sacked. Why? Did some seniors
feel threatened by the degrees? The Government spends alot of
taxpayers’ money to train an
officer. They even pay and feed
recruits who are undergoing
training. Then absorb them
directly into the workforce immediately upon completion of
their courses and leaving college.
Sadly, senior police officers abuse
the Dismissal option in the name
of punishments. It is a way of
settling grudges. An open cheque to be misused at the slightest
whim of a powerhungry brute.
And the most abused is an
ambigous clause where one is
charged with the ‘offence’ of
‘being guilty’ of an act, conduct to the prejudice of good order and
discipline. If the offence already
says I am guilty, what is the point
of the proceedings? This is merely
a formality to pass an afore-
planned sentence. A boss who wants to snatch your girlfriend
can invoke this stupid clause and
dismiss you. One gets dismissed
because of
petty allegations and his appeal
letter is hidden until he bribes. Where in the public sector can he
get a decent job that involves
weaponry, crime investigations,
traffic control etc? The difference
between police
college and other learning institutions is that it is seamless.
We have a smooth transition
from unemployment, college and
employment. Therefore if you
went to this college, every
potential employer knows you worked as a cop and will thus
demand to know why you left.
Sadly, in their grudges, the bosses
write such damning Dismissal
Letters to ensure that you don’t
get employed anywhere. Where do these officers go?