How IPOA's inadequate staffing fuels police brutality

Serious understaffing is hampering Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) from delivering on its mandate.

The Authority’s current employees are 287 against an approved establishment by Public Service Commission of 1,377.

The number is grossly inadequate to provide oversight against an estimated 130,000 police officers.

As a result of shortage implies that IPOA is struggling in holding police to account, creating public trust and confidence,  carrying out strategic partnerships and engagements, and enhancing institutional effectiveness and efficiency as it strives to bring a level of professionalism in the National Police Service (NPS).

This emerged during the Authority’s launch of the Sh13.1 billion, five-year strategic plan running from 2025 to 2030.

However, should the challenge of staffing persist coupled with underfunding, most of the identified issues in the strategic plan might not be implemented fully.

In the previous 2019-2024 strategic plan, there was a 92 per cent success rate with significant progress made on police accountability as manifest in successfully resolving of 12,732 complaints out of the 20,112 received.

Upon investigations, the Authority recommended 773 files to the Office of Directorate of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) for action, resulting in 33 convictions.

Additionally, IPOA monitored 514 policing operations and inspected 3,854 police premises and detention facilities, and made policy recommendations.

With cases of police brutality seemingly not going down in the last two years, the Authority has come under increasing pressure over its oversight role. In defence, IPOA has repeatedly maintained that success hinges on adequate staffing and funding.

“We have 77 investigators against a need of 400 investigators and that is where the core of public complaints are that we take too long to investigate complaints and prosecute any complaints arising from those investigations,” said the Authority’s chairman Issack Hassan during the launch of the strategic plan on Wednesday.

Apart from staffing and funding, other key challenges cited by Hassan include lack of co-operation from police and overlapping mandates between IPOA and Internal Affairs Unit (IAU) of National Police Service.

“We are accused by the public of not doing enough to hold the police accountable, we are accused of being part of the police covering up for them. On the other hand, we continue to face resistance and lack of cooperation from police command and police officers in terms of investigating misconduct and criminal action by police. It is important for police command to embrace transparency and accountability,” added Hassan.

Resources and capabilities are essential components of the Authority’s ability to realise its mandate.

Further, despite the Authority having presence in nine regional offices, it is expected to provide oversight against police who are spread across the country with over 3000 facilities located in 1450 wards in the country.

The Authority has been pushing to decentralize its services to other regions not covered by Kisumu, Nakuru, Kakamega, Eldoret, Meru, and Nyeri offices.

According IPOA, public trust and confidence in police remain low, with the strategic plan 2019-2024 end term evaluation rating it at 45 per cent. The poor rating is attributed to perceived ineffectiveness and unresponsiveness of police, increased incidents of police brutality and excesses, past experiences of harassment and extortion by officers and lack of fairness in the National Police Service.

“Continued allegations of extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances associated with the police continue to erode public trust and confidence in the Service. The increasing cases of police misconduct, delayed investigations and weak feedback mechanisms have resulted in low levels of public trust and confidence in IPOA,” reads the 2025-2030 Strategic Plan.

Despite the Authority’s existence for over 12 years, the level of awareness on its mandate remains low, characterized by low understanding of complaints handling mechanisms, lodging of non-mandate complaints and a low level of reporting of all cases of police misconduct to the Authority, which reduces IPOA’s effectiveness in addressing police abuse of power.

There also exists a proportion of the population that is unaware of the existence of a civilian policing oversight mechanism in the country.

“The strategic objectives and strategies in this plan, provide a roadmap that is necessary for the envisioned Policing standards as enshrined in the Constitution. The embedded implementation, resource mobilization, and monitoring and evaluation plans are guides to achievements of the set targets during this strategic period,” said Hassan.