Police powers in community policing to be handed to citizens – Kaguthi.

National Nyumba Kumi initiative Chairman Joseph Kaguthi taking cluster leaders from Murang'a County through the proposed amendments to community policing implementation in Kenol Town on Friday.

The government is in the process of amending sections of the National Police Service Act to give powers to the citizens to take control of their own security.

National Nyumba Kumi initiative Chairman Joseph Kaguthi terms as outdated, the section that gave the police officer in charge of an area (OCS) the mandate to convene and control the agenda of meetings that form community policing forums and structures.

While quoting Jubilee’s Manifesto on security, Kaguthi said that the government plans to manage security matters through citizen participation via the ‘Nyumba Kumi’ Initiative in liaison with the Peace and Security Committee.

Kaguthi was speaking in Kenol Town, Murang’a County during a forum with clusters leaders to discuss the Draft Guidelines for Implementation of Community Policing – Nyumba Kumi and citizen participation in security as a first line of defense.

“We have to remove some of the sections of the National Police Act where the OCS is mandated to convene meetings that form Community Policing forums. It can’t work. It didn’t work and it is not going to work,” said Kaguthi.

He pointed out that security was never the responsibility of the uniformed forces but that of citizens through the ‘Nyumba Kumi Usalama Msingi’ clusters and through facilitating of citizens using social media.

“The citizen is the first line of defence. The uniformed forces should be ranked last in terms of security responsibility. We are now heading to the second stage of implementation of this programme and that is going prevention,” he said.

In this second phase, Kaguthi said that all colleges training uniformed security officers have started implementing a new curriculum that will see officers trained to respect citizens and in ways to enable them engage appropriately in crime prevention.

He warned that, through forums such as the community policing clusters and social media, the citizen will be encouraged to report cases of abuse of power and impunity among those mandated to maintain law and order.

“We have reports of citizens reporting certain crimes committed by perpetrators who are ‘untouchable’ due to corruption and connections in high offices. If you find someone committing crime with impunity, just identify and expose their godfathers through the various platforms at your disposal. Impunity and abuse of office will and must stop,” warned the chairman.

He recommended the inclusion of retired civil servants and the youth in the composition of the new Nyumba Kumi clusters as they stood to benefit the fight against insecurity and crime through their vast experience and innovations respectively.

Those present in the meeting included Dr. Francis Sang, Former CID Director and currently a Member of National Task Force on Community Policing/Nyumba Kumi.