The government set a taskforce led by David Maraga, the former Chief Justice to review the operations of the police service.
The objective was to align the service to the new vision and policy agenda of the Kenya Kwanza government. The taskforce made a raft of recommendations, some of which were largely administrative.
At the centre of this process at the Ministry of Interior is Dr Raymond Omollo. The self-effacing holder of Doctorate in Computational Statistics from the University of Nairobi has consistently emerged as a top performer in the current regime.
His actions have been impactful and transformative. They have been praised as being citizen-centred and service-oriented. In line with the reforms recommended, an additional plank was created within the National Police Service.
Previously, there existed the regular and administration units in addition to the semi-autonomous Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
Each of the units is headed by a Deputy Inspector General while the DCI is under a director. There has now been established another unit - the National Government Administration Police Unit.
The unit is innovatively designed to revolutionise policing and monitoring of government operations at the very local levels.
Ngapu embodies a new era of grassroots governance that ensures that every nook and cranny of the community is carried along in the government’s development agenda.
While this outfit will operate under the Administration Police Unit, it is constituted to work under the general direction of the National Government Administrative Officers.
It is headquartered in Nairobi but has operational presence across the country, spanning locational up to county levels. It may be considered a replica of the provincial administration under the District Focus for Rural Development.
However, it is more impactful and transformative. This is governance made tangible - connecting national ambitions with everyday lives of Kenyans. It is more than policy.
It will streamline operations, enhance accountability and embed law enforcement within local communities.
The novel unit has placed the national police firmly at the forefront of the bottom-up economic transformation agenda, BETA policy. It will make the service proactive and initiative-focused instead of reactionary and crime-prevention centred.
It is transforming the service into a citizen partner organisation from an antagonistic government agency.
This will have the effect of creating a conducive environment where sharing of information is cordial and mutual.
The benefit will radically change the platform upon which crime is fought and contained.
Many idle citizens will be identified and engaged in productive government and private sector economic activities. This will make them shun the allure of criminal and unorthodox gainful employment opportunities, thereby making proceeds of crime uninviting.
The Principal Secretary and his colleagues should however be wary of the possibility of falling back into the default setting of the provincial administration of old.
The colonial structure was naturally oppressive and extractive. They engaged the citizens at the grassroots on a patron-client relationship.
They considered that the government knew best what the citizens deserved and went ahead to determine the development projects.
At some points they considered the citizens as saboteurs of government development projects. One then wonders in whose interest and on whose behalf the government was acting in the inception and implementation of such projects.
The relationship between the then provincial administration and the citizens was thus of mutual suspicion and hostility. The local leaders therefore took advantage of the prevailing circumstances to pilfer the public resources.
They led by brute force and replaced persuasion with coercion. The police reforms have come at a time that the country is facing challenging moments in its history. There are political tensions across the country.
Politicians are beating war drums every weekend in public functions. The economic meltdown is causing anguish to ordinary citizens across the board.
The impeachment of Rigathi Gachagua as Deputy President has resulted into unprecedented polarisation of the country.
He has intensified his campaigns to delegitimise the government he once served with zeal. He has naturally found comfort in the company of disillusioned politicians from the central Kenya region and other opposition leaders.
These coincidental events have led to acts of lawlessness culminating in last year’s June Gen Z protests. The disgruntled young people overran security agencies and almost brought down Parliament.
The formation of the broad-based government made the central Kenya political leaders to drift farther away. The scenario does not portend well for the national cohesion agenda.
The institutions that have traditionally played a key role in fostering national unity within and outside government appear to have dropped their guard or lost their focus altogether.
The religious organisations - especially the church - have joined forces with the media and financial institutions and have willingly become captive of narrow ethnic political pursuit.
The civil society movement under the clutches of tribal hegemony find themselves in a compromised position. The government and statutory agencies mandated to champion human rights and promote patriotism are between the hammer and the anvil.
Left unchecked, the country is staring at civil strife as it inches closer to the elections. The political operatives on both sides of the divide appear not to care about the ramifications of their bare knuckle engagements.
It is more a case of “if we are not in then nobody will”. The rebellion by the Gen Zs buttressed by the Kikuyu elite walkout from government is not fortune for political stability.
The old and known strategies to manage security threats are still necessary but not sufficient to contain the emerging trends.
They are also inadequate in the mitigation of the resurgent strong ethnic nationalism being championed by respective regional leaders.
The young activists are dynamic and have at their disposal up-to-date digital technology for communication and mobilisation. The technology is versatile and manipulable with global outreach. It has made the world truly a global village, but at the same time, led to the rise in political enclaves with provincial fascist agenda.
It is in this light that the Ngapu should find their work cut out for them. They should deploy innovative strategies that seek to engage rather than contain.
They would be better off alienating the vile political leaders from the civil citizens than lumping them together on account of cultural and geographical heritage.
Opportunities must be provided to showcase the positive achievements of the government alongside the negative propaganda of the antinationalist crusaders.
The writer is a
political and policy
analyst
