1 November 2012
NAIROBI, Kenya – The Security Research and Information Centre (SRIC) held a stakeholders’ meeting in Nairobi to share lessons learned during Kenya’s police reform process, as well as to launch a publication documenting the findings of a baseline survey conducted as part of a joint project with the African Security Sector Network (ASSN). The meeting got underway at the Nairobi Safari Club on 1 November 2012, attended by 36 participants from the Kenya Police Service, the Government of Kenya, Private Security Companies, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and District Peace Committees.
It was opened by Col (Rtd) Jerry Kitiku, Director of SRIC and ASSN Regional Coordinator for East Africa and the Great Lakes Region. In his keynote address, Col Kitiku explained the overarching objective of the joint SRIC/ASSN project, themed ‘Leveraging Political Space in the New Kenyan Constitutionalism: Enhancing Civil Society and Community Engagement with the Agenda Four Reforms.’ The project aims to help sustain momentum towards the full implementation of historical grievances over constitutional, legal, institutional and land reforms; poverty; inequality; and youth unemployment that have roiled Kenya’s peace and security over the past five decades since independence in 1963. It was these historical grievances that morphed initial protests over the disputed December 2007 presidential election into deadly ethnic violence that claimed thousands of Kenyan lives.
Col Kitiku underscored the role of the baseline surveys, terming them an important tool for gauging popular perception on the pace and direction of the ‘Agenda Four Reform’ process, as well as providing actionable recommendations that could boost the efforts of both governmental and non-governmental actors to conclude the ‘Agenda Four Reforms’ ahead of the next elections in March 2013.
He also noted that the publication to be launched at the forum would make a useful addition to the existing body of knowledge on Security Sector Reforms in Kenya. As proceedings went on, SRIC’s Programmes Coordinator Leonard Kyalo and Senior Researcher Johnstone Kibor delved into the contents of the publication and the findings of the baseline survey on the ‘Agenda Four Reforms.’ Among other key findings, 66.4 percent of respondents felt that judicial reforms were well on track and a majority felt that the long feared police had become more citizen friendly than they were five years ago in 2007/2008.
On a negative note however, the surveys found that a majority of Kenyans still perceive the lagging issue of land reform as a smouldering cauldron, holding the potential to precipitate a replay of ethnic antagonism over land, particularly in the heterogenous Rift Valley and Coast provinces. These and other findings were discussed at a plenary session moderated by Mr. Ruto Pkalya. The plenary session also gave plenty of attention to discussions on the ongoing police reforms.
Incidentally, SRIC has had a long history of engagement with police reforms in Kenya and in the wider East African region. The organisation has in the past successfully delivered on a number of programmes in collaboration with the Kenya Police Service (formerly the Kenya Police Force), the Government of Kenya and with other CSOs. These include the development of various policy documents including the Kenya Peacebuilding and the Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) draft policies; the establishment and training of District Peace Committees and Provincial Task Forces for Kenya’s national action plan on SALW; the Formulation of national action plans on SALW in Kenya (and later in Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda); as well as research and facilitation of policy dialogue on key security areas and trends in crime and armed violence in East Africa; and work on the Kenya Police Reform Strategic Plan and Community Policing initiatives. SRIC also maintains a dedicated database that makes data and information on crime, security and policing available to government officials, researchers, the media and the general public.
While acknowledging the positive reforms Kenya has so far achieved since the last elections in 2008, Dr. Roba Sharamo, Team Leader of the UNDP Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution Unit, took the opportunity to point out several sticking issues that require urgent attention. He singled out the need for a decision on whether to retain, reform or abolish the colonial-style Provincial Administration; the high levels of youth unemployment that make young Kenyans vulnerable for hire in poll instigated chaos; and the implications of the International Criminal Court’s indictment of four prominent Kenyans, including a leading presidential candidate and his running mate for crimes against humanity during the 2007/2008 post election violence.
Dr. Sharamo then officially launched the SRIC/ASSN publication, titled ‘The Reform Process in Kenya: A Survey of Citizen Knowledge, Attitudes and Perceptions of the Reform Process‘.
On his part, Mr. S.K. Maina, the Coordinator of the National Steering Committee (NSC) on Peacebuilding and Conflict Management in the Kenyan Ministry for Internal Security, emphasised on the need for a holistic approach to the entire reform process, citing the diverse challenges facing Kenya. He decried Kenya’s highly ethnicised politics as an significant challenge that needed to be targeted alongside developmental issues such as unemployment among the youth and environmental changes that threaten the country’s food security. He also thanked SRIC and its project partners for consistently monitoring the Agenda Four Reform process, adding that such efforts would go a long way towards informing Kenya’s peacebuilding and conflict management agenda.
Mr. David Kimaiyo, Director of the Kenya National Focal Point on Small Arms (KNFP), emphasised on the importance of information sharing in dealing with crime and challenged the ‘Agenda Four’ institutions to adapt the findings of the baseline survey in the development of strategies to mitigate crime and violence in the country. Mr. Kimaiyo has since been appointed Kenya’s first Inspector General of Police (IGP), a position created as part of the police reforms stipulated by the 2010 Constitution.
Download publication: The Reform Process in Kenya: A Survey of Citizen Knowledge, Attitudes and Perceptions of the Reform Process (PDF)
