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3 Afr. Hum. Rts. L.J. 275 (2003)
Police Accountability in Kenya

handle is hein.journals/afrhurlj3 and id is 287 raw text is: AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS LAW JOURNAL Police accountability in Kenya Joshua N Auerbach* Project Officer, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), New Delhi, India Recently the police shot eight gangsters, which means that eight of them have been sent out of the streets for life. We believe that law enforcement officers should continue doing the same in a bid to reduce crime. - Hon Marsden Madoka, Minister for Internal Security (Office of the President), Kenya, 3 April 2000 I have word from the President that there shall not be orders from anywhere else except your immediate superiors. - Hon Chris Murungaru, Minister for Provincial Administration and National Security, Kenya, 20 February 2003 Summary This article examines the Kenya Police Force and how the current 'constitutional moment' may be seized for much needed reform. The police have been at the nexus of the most serious problems facing Kenyan society: corruption, crime, inter-ethnic violence and vigilantism. Institutional arrangements are needed to ensure police accountability. Accountability has the following components: popular accountability, legal accountability and transparency. It is essential that the police be insulated from extralegal or illegal political interference and that internal and external supervisory and complaints mechanisms holding members of the police accountable, exist. The article discusses police accountability in Kenya. Brief comparative sketches of Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa and Northern Ireland are given. These countries have taken steps to broaden the range of actors and institutions to which the police are accountable and to have the executive JD (Harvard); jauerbach@lycos.com. An earlierversion of this paper was distributed as a background note at 'Police as a Service Organisation: An Agenda for Change,' a conference on police reform jointly sponsored by CHRI and the Kenya Human Rights Commission. My thanks go to Maja Daruwala, GP Joshi and Michelle Kagari, all of CHRI, for their editorial advice and encouragement.

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