Police should be under Civilian Authority, Lawyer says
August 27,2026
Police should be
under Civilian Authority, Lawyer says
The National Police Service should be under the Civilian Authority in accordance
to the current constitution of Kenya 2010, a Lawyer has said.
Lawyer Willis Otieno says as Kenyans are marking the 16th
anniversary of the Constitution, the 2010, it is an opportunity for them to
take stock of life after it came into being.
Otieno says some of the sticking issues that Kenyans are still noticing
is that police brutality has not reduced hence call for the Service to be under
Civilian Authority as enshrined in the Constitution of Kenya 2010.
The Lawyer says if anything, the issue of police brutality has
just increased, adding that the constitution was meant to change how policing
is done in the Country.
“Some of the areas which we have targeted for reforms was about
making sure that police become subject to civilian oversight,” says Otieno,
adding that how policing should be responsive to the needs of the community is
also vital
Otieno says it has been seen police abducting residents as well as
instances where some operating as goons, adding that Kenyans don't know which
authority they report to.
We have seen Policeofficers who disobey court orders as well as those
engaging in acts of extrajudicial killings.
“Our proposal on this Katiba day is that in terms of policing, we must
fully implement the provisions of Article 239 and Article 5 of the
Constitution, which provides that police must be subordinate to civilian authority,”
Otieno says.
Otieno says it is time that now Kenya comes up with a mechanism that
every police station in the country should have a civilian board made up
of the people from that locality that are served by that precinct.
“Just like all schools in Kenya have school boards of management, all health
facilities in Kenya have health board management, police also being a service,
we must have civilian boards of management for every police station,” the
Lawyer further says.
He says such a board will be responsible for overseeing the
administrative components of policing work can inspect the cells to confirm if
all inmates are accounted for.
“In case somebody has not been taken to court, this board should be able
to report and find out why the inmate has not been taken to court within the
time required and in case of an injury, they are able to ask why the inmate has
not received treatment and also to inquire where the injuries were procured, if
at the police station or outside. If there is use of firearms, they are able to
make sure that there is a report, incident report the details that led to
the use of that firearm and which officer used that firearm, properly or
improperly. So we must hand power back to the people,” he adds.
He says Kenyans also want to deal with this issue of police
officers constantly being given orders from above.
“The order from Nairobi, go and kill those people, go and disrupt that
peaceful procession, go and abduct Albert Ojwang because an order has come from
above should never be there. So let's change the command structure. The above
should be the people,” he adds.
He says how to achieve this is through a proposal that at the command level,
the sub-county commander, the former OCPD, the person in charge of the
police division, should be elected by the people of that division, so
that if anybody calls him from Nairobi to follow unlawful order he will ask him
whom he is.
“The person elected as an OCPD is to serve for one term of five years, elections
conducted, immediate general elections, and he can be a police officer or a
civilian.
Let the people decide who they want to be in charge of the police officers
deployed in their presence,” he further says.
Otieno says the Police officers can still be appointed by the National
Police Service Commission but it's the commander that is the one who should get
his mandate from the people, and is the one who these officers will be
receiving commands from.
His above will become the people who have elected him. All this we
are proposing to ensure that police becomes more responsive to Kenyans
and not to legacy politicians. Thank you.
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