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Report: IPOA has only managed three convictions of police officers in 6 years


The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) says it has only managed to have three police officers convicted over a period of six years since its inception.

This is despite having fully completed investigating over 1,000 cases and closing a total of 9,878 cases received during its first term.

IPOA was established through an Act of Parliament published in November 2011 to provide for civilian oversight and check excesses over the work of the National Police Service in Kenya.

The inaugural board, headed by Macharia Njeru, whose term has come to an end, was sworn into office in June 2012.

In its final report presented to the Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i on Monday, the outgoing chair Njeru, said the board had submitted 164 recommendation to the government and 103 files cumulatively forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP).

ABUSE OF OFFICE

The report indicated that complaints of abuse of office by police officers led by 45 per cent, while those of police harassment were at 18 per cent followed by police misconduct at 13.8 per cent, among others complaints.

In terms of complaints processed as at April 30t, 2018, board member Tom Kagwe said IPOA had received and acted on 9,878 cases which were complains from the members of the public and the police as well.

According to the report, 1,345 of the cases were closed, 5085 were taken up by investigations while 364 were disposed off through inspections of the premises of police. The rest were referred to other agencies to act with accordance of their mandate.

On the challenges it faced during its tenure that led to the conviction of only three police officers despite the numerous complaints received, the board blamed the police service of being uncooperative in investigating the excesses of its officers, citing instances of police resistance while being vetted by the civilians’ board.

The outgoing board and the executive will now oversee the recruitment of incoming new office.