If the presidency does not see the effects of its willful blindness to the blindspots in the National Police Service administration, it is only a matter of time before the spiralling problems really get out of hand. Parliament, not known for its sense of public service, has weighed in on the inequities and iniquities of the last round of recruitment exercises. So too have the Commission on the Administration of Justice and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission. But the presidency, in the guise of the Interior Cabinet Secretary and the Inspector-General, burying its head in the sand, is willing to ride out the public opprobrium because, after all, Kenyans are not known for their sustained engagement with maters of national import. That is a grave mistake.
We are not blind to the amount of work required to build up the National Police into a credible institution. Five decades of the insidious misuse and abuse of the police has bequeathed us with an institution that is both reviled and feared in equal measure. Its reputation has hit so many nadirs that we are no longer surprised when it somehow manages to sink lower in the eyes of the people. With the allegations regarding the recruitment of officers fresh in our minds, perhaps it is time Kenyans seriously questioned the presidency's commitment to the reform of the National Police from a force into a service.
Luis Franceschi has written about the colonial-era tactics that prevail in the manner that the National Police is managed and his conclusions are spot on. Other commentators have reviewed the risks of having a tainted recruitment process permitted to conclude, including the elevated risk of having officers who were recruited because of the bribes they paid motivated to recover their investments while on the job. But it is the pernicious effect on the presidency that is yet to be examined in detail.
President Kenyatta is in an unenviable position. When he took office it was in the background of a contested election. This time round, however, it was without accusations that the police forces had been deployed to guarantee his victory. He was elected despite his facing charges at the International Criminal Court. And he was elected in the midst of an escalating national security crisis that was dramatically brought home with the Westgate Siege and the Mpeketoni Attacks. President Kenyatta also faced a crisis of integrity in his own office, a crisis that led him, and some of his minions, to declare a war against corruption in the Office of the President. Fifteen months into his presidency and the people's faith in the presidency continues to sink.
The President could begin the arduous task of police reforms by admitting that business-as-usual approach has failed. His hope in the goodness of the hearts of the men and women under his command has been betrayed. It is time he took matters into his own hands, much as Charity Ngilu, the Cabinet Secretary for Lands, Housing and Urban Development, has by taking on the cartels operating out of the mysterious Thirteenth Floor of Ardhi House. Mrs Ngilu had President Kenyatta's support; he will need our support if his agenda is to be realised.
Mr Kenyatta can begin by demanding the resignation of those who failed him. If they will not go willingly, he must drive them out. We cannot build a credible police force if the men and women responsible for recruiting and training officers have committed such daringly blatant acts of corruption. It is not enough for them to claim that the process was infiltrated by outsiders; that they knew this and refused to push back against political and criminal forces is an indictment of their commitment to the rule of law. Their continued engagement in the National Police shall remain an indictment of the President's own commitment to reforms and the rule of law and shall forever be a blot on his presidency. The iron of corruption in the National Police is hot and the President must strike now or forever mortgage his reputation and the future of the public safety to the forces of destruction.
Of course Mr Kenyatta faces political risks regardless of the path he chooses. He still has time to make the hard decisions. He has tarried for too long and allowed the cartels everyone speaks of but no one names to grow new roots and take over new areas. Despite the constant harrying by the Minority Party, Mr Kenyatta still enjoys a measure of credibility among the people. He is our President and that is a fact that we have come to accept, some even to celebrate. He should not fear that we will forget this fact when the time comes for him to ask us to trust our nation to his hands once more. He must crush the forces of corruption; they are the only ones that keep his presidency from gunning for greatness. In this one challenge lies the future of this nation. Baba Moi could not do it. Baba Jimmi refused to do it. If President Kenyatta does not, our doom will be total.
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