I became a police officer on the 30th July 1988. More specifically, I reported to the training academy at Kenya Police College on a Friday evening. That’s when I met thousands of other motivated young Kenyans from across the country who had assembled ready for the police training sojourn. Most of them to date are my bosom buddies; some even closer to me than some blood relatives. On that day, we all assembled to embark on a lifelong quest to serve our motherland and citizens with distinction, so I presumed. At least it was on my part, for sure.
I say this because it was not by default that I was at the academy on that cold Nyeri evening, some 600kms away from my birth village of Eregi situated deep in the then Kakamega district (currently Kakamega County). It was not even out of desperation that I was in a place meeting people I had no plans or intention of meeting then since I had just left a teaching job in a local secondary school back home which paid more handsomely compared to what the Kenya Police was then paying a constable; and also having left behind some of my best memories that I shared with my family and childhood friends. I had dumped all such familiarity and future prospects for the unknown out of a well thought out design than default.
What I intent to say through these many words is that I chose to become a police officer as my career of choice and not otherwise. That I had made a very deep and personal decision that bound my whole life based on what I believed to be core to my value system. And this being the thirst to serve citizens in the justice sector, and more specifically, the law enforcement fraternity.
And now over 26 years and still counting, I still hang in there, with no regrets; and a better person at that having fulfilled my desire to serve. And not just to serve but serve with a distinction!
So if I were to exit the police scene, my service epitaph would read ‘I came and served, I kept the promise, and I finished the vocation!’ And that’s sometimes sooner than later.
So I joined the police service (unfortunately a Force then) out of choice and with great expectation to excel at service delivery to the common person. I came in with a personal value proposition of customer orientation as opposed to personal gratification. At least I had other career options then that I had overlooked for policing. And this was well captured and documented in my first ever police essay that is mandatory to all new recruits: ‘Why I Joined the Police Force’.
No one ever explained to us why such a relatively cheap essay was mandatory for grown ups aspiring for police service. And nobody cared to ask. So no one knew why. And because it was mandatory, and having been supplied with enough writing papers and pens, we all did scribble our reasons as to why we joined the police force.
I candidly shared my reasons, amongst others being the need and desire to make a difference in serving the nation and citizens through policing. I went further to share how my desire arose through justice inequities that I had grown up witnessing in society. And more positive things were shared too.
My colleagues too shared their versions. Never knew what they wrote.
But later in my service I have had the privilege to serve in diverse supervisory and management roles, including a stint as a police instructor at the police academy. These roles exposed me to officers’ personal files which I would occasionally review. And sure enough, though unbeknown to many officers, those simple essays they all wrote way back on their first day at the police academy are well filed in their personal files as a permanent record. And for a good reason too as I have later come to learn.
This essay is well intended as a psychological recruitment tool (though such a purpose was lost somewhere along the way hence becoming a mere routine). The necessity for this kind of essay is due to the fact that police is not an ordinary career option but a vocation requiring a certain profile and professing certain attributes that are irreducible. And this can only be captured at recruitment (entry point) through self disclosures of deep personal policing values or otherwise.
So having reviewed some files, I have been astounded at the various reasons ascribed to by young innocent recruits as to why they joined the police service. Some candidly talk of: love for being a traffic officer; being just in need for a job (that they were jobless and desperate at the time); to earn a living; others “that was what was available”; a love for the uniform; a love for guns; a love for power… etc. So these are some of the key motivations of officers driving their police career decisions. Very few reviews argue a case for service provision need!
As alarming as this may sound, I have just been jolted out of my forced indifference towards this as I read an interview conducted by a section of the media with a police officer in today’s papers. Danson Mungai aka Mr. Kulmax is allegedly an administration police officer who is also a singer that uses his music to inspire social change. He seems to be a very fine officer with a bright future. He is photographed in full combat uniform donning a G3 rifle – a very proud officer that I admire. As at the time of interview, the officer was serving on a national security operation duty deep in the trenches of Baragoi, Samburu (a hero there). As said, in addition to core policing, he is pushing a side hustle of doing music targeting the youth especially to rid them off drugs (a change champion there!). In short, constable Danson is not your average police officer but a quintessential one and a model focused to serve with a difference. Kudos to him.
Officer Danson stands tall and ready to defend the motherland and citizens
Only that he joined the service for all the wrong reasons, in my opinion. In his own response to a question posed on when he joined the police force, he says as follows:
“I joined administration police service in 2005. This was a turning point in my life because I got the chance when I was so desperate and broke not forgetting it was so hard for me to sustain my living in the city to a point that I engaged in petty crimes in the slums of Dandora. No one in my family knew about it and luckily, I never got arrested.”
Gallant officer on an anti-drug youth crusade through gift of music
These are his own words. And a very scaring confession from a risk management point of view, especially for the police career, if you asked me. I wonder if he wrote the same candour in his first police essay on ‘Why I Joined the Police Force.’ If so, then someone slept on the job, then.
In such words, the officer joined policing out of frustration and desperation. It was not a balanced choice, or a career of first choice. In fact he had no options then. He also had a crime involvement. I can only hope that he got cleaned up in due course and saw the light as Saul saw his on the way to Damascus. That’s very important in this scenario.
Candour is good. Especially when it leads to a total change of habits and temperament. This vigilance of behaviour change is bestowed on a proactive strategic human resource function to profile and keep track of progress of staff, especially those from a risky past. But as an optimist, I pray and trust all is well in this case.
Otherwise that small essay we wrote as officers on our first day at academy can make or break our careers depending on what we disclose in it, or affect trust levels within the service and community. It says much about the kind of people that we are. It’s a summary of our holistic character (read culture), hence can inform biases to our own disadvantage as officers.
When you confess to having been motivated to join police service by making it to traffic, doubts arise. Why traffic and not GSU paramilitary (where men are separated from boys)? And what does the love for guns infer on one’s disposition? Propensity for violence? Whatever you may mean, you eventually get an uphill task of redeeming yourself through endless explanations, and for the rest of your career. Same thing for a law enforcement officer with a crime past!
A terrible situation for an officer to be in.
SMARTPolicing 