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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Police Accountability in Kenya
Author:Auerbach, Joshua N.ISNI
Year:2004
Periodical:East African Journal of Peace and Human Rights
Volume:10
Issue:2
Pages:206-245
Language:English
Geographic term:Kenya
Subjects:democracy
constitutional reform
administrative reform
police
Law, Human Rights and Violence
Military, Defense and Arms
Abstract:After more than a decade of activism for democratic reform in Kenya, there has been no better opportunity since independence for its people to revise the principles underlying Kenyan democracy and to reshape government institutions in accordance with those principles. The Kenya Police Force (KPF) must be among those institutions that are reshaped. In the past years, the police have not been properly accountable to the Kenyan people. This paper provides a starting point for a discussion about reform of the constitutional and legislative provisions that govern police accountability. It discusses the concept of police accountability and suggests that it encompasses at least three core values: popular accountability, legal accountability and transparency. Next, it assesses the institutional arrangements for police accountability that exist in Kenya, which are few in number and generally weak in functioning. This is followed by brief sketches of the law in five other Commonwealth jurisdictions - Nigeria, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda -, focusing mainly on three sets of institutional arrangements that bear heavily on accountability: arrangements for the appointment, dismissal, transfer and tenure of the head of the police and other top officers; for the supervision and control of the police force; and for the investigation of police misconduct. Finally, four aspects of the trend toward enhanced police accountability in police reform legislation are identified. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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