For many Kenyans, the sight of a police uniform does not evoke a sense of safety; it evokes a sense of dread. This collective anxiety is not accidental, nor is it merely the result of a few bad apples. Instead, it is the predictable outcome of a policing system that is still operating on a blueprint designed over a century ago by a colonial regime.
This is the subject of a petition that call for reforms in the Kenyan police service that is currently live HERE.
As calls for reform grow louder, a central theme has emerged: the need to decolonize the Kenya Police. This is not just a call for better equipment or higher salaries, it is a demand for a total ideological overhaul of how the state interacts with its people.
To understand why the Kenya Police Service (KPS) behaves as it does today, one must look at its origins. Established by the British at the turn of the 20th century, the force was never intended to serve and protect the African population. Its primary mandate was to secure the interests of the Crown, suppress local resistance, and enforce the extraction of labor and taxes.
During the colonial era, the police were a paramilitary wing of the administration. They were trained to view the public as “subjects” to be controlled rather than citizens with rights. When Kenya gained independence in 1963, the uniforms changed and the leadership was Africanized, but the underlying structures and the “them-versus-us” philosophy remained largely intact.
Decades later, the hallmarks of colonial policing continue to manifest in Kenyan streets. We see this in:
- The Militarization of Dissent: When citizens take to the streets to exercise their constitutional right to protest, they are often met with tear gas and lethal force. The goal remains “containment” rather than the facilitation of a democratic right.
- Targeting the Marginalized: Modern policing often disproportionately targets low-income neighborhoods and youth in informal settlements. Extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances remain a dark stain on the nation’s human rights record.
- The Shield of Impunity: Historically, colonial officers were rarely held accountable for violence against the “natives.” Today, despite the existence of oversight bodies, the rate of successful prosecutions for police brutality remains frustratingly low.
Decolonizing the police means more than just changing a name from Force to Service. It requires a fundamental shift in the Social Contract.
True reform involves moving away from the Paramilitary Model, where the police act as an occupying force, to a Civilian Service Model. In this new framework, the police are integrated into the community, their authority is derived from public consent, and their success is measured by the safety of the most vulnerable, not by the number of arrests made.
If Kenya is to fulfill the promise of the 2010 Constitution, the following steps are non-negotiable:
- Revising Training Curricula: Education must move away from “combat” and toward psychology, human rights, and de-escalation.
- Legislative Purge: Laws currently on the books that are direct descendants of colonial decrees used to stifle political opposition must be repealed.
- Radical Accountability: There must be zero tolerance for the use of lethal force against unarmed civilians. Oversight bodies like IPOA must be fully funded and protected from political interference.
- Community-Led Safety: Safety should be defined by the residents of a neighborhood, not dictated by a central command.
Sign the petition here change.org/p/decolonize-kenya-police