Police inept, new report claims

Most criminal investigations by police are shoddy and cannot guarantee convictions, according to a new report released Wednesday.

The police force was painted as a service tainted with brutal officers who falsified evidence, threatened the public with unjustifiable imprisonment and took bribes.

The report ‘‘Baseline Survey On Policing Standards and Gaps In Kenya’’, was launched in Nairobi after a research by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority.

Its chairman, Mr Macharia Njeru, said: “The quality of investigations at police stations is very poor. The impact of professional misconduct is very high.”

For instance, a big number of robberies with violence investigation files seen by the researchers lacked vital documents that the court could rely on.

In some files, according to the report, police hardly proved the complainant sustained injuries, whether the accused was armed or even if recovered property belonged to the complainant.

The researchers studied such files in Nairobi police stations including Kamukunji, Kilimani, Muthaiga Kariobangi and Huruma.

“Overall, 64 per cent of the felony cases reviewed never met the minimum evidentiary threshold to charge a person with an offence. This threshold is much lower than the beyond reasonable doubt,” reads part of the report.

How police handled ‘‘preparation to commit a felony,’’ another offence under Kenyan laws, revealed 76 per cent of the cases presented by detectives fell below the acceptable standards.

It is only in 73 cases, out of the 203 that police gathered enough evidence.

And in the event a file was certified to be taken to court, only 25 per cent of the cases attracted convictions.

“This means that only one in every four cases ends up in a conviction. This reveals poor quality of investigation for police to determine which cases are ripe for prosecution,” the report reads.

On police misconduct, the survey found out that many people opted not to reportbecause they assumed either no action would be taken or feared reprisals.

Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo, who attended the launch, said police detectives are usually trained not to take cases to court unless there is sufficient evidence.

“What could be lacking is the communication between the detectives and complainant and so the latter does not understand a case cannot be taken to court without enough evidence,” he said.

However, the report also noted that police efficiency was hampered by among others low morale due to incommensurate salaries and lack of modern equipment.

It further explained why most investigations are shoddy and are often referred back by prosecutors.

“Typically, police make an arrest the same day a crime is reported and three days before they formally open investigations. This suggests that police act quickly to secure arrests and may not have time to ensure there was sufficient evidence,” the report reads.

Present during the release of the report was fomer director of CID Francis Sang who presented copies of his autobiography, A Noble But Onerous Duty to Inspector-General David Kimaiyo.

Reported by BY FRED MUKINDA [email protected] AND PETER OBUYA [email protected]