There is a reason police officers in Kenya could be laughing at the People Daily.
That amusement seems to be extended to the Nairobi County Police Commander Adamson Bungei, if he was quoted correctly for the story on Page 4 of last Monday titled, “Nairobi police chief devises new plan to tackle growing crime”. It talks of Bungei releasing orders to all senior officers serving under him to comb the breadth and width of the capital city in a bid to beat the rising tide of crime.
Mathew Ndung’u begins his story with a promise that is likely to make Nairobi residents rest easy. “The era when police bosses in Nairobi used to sit in their fancy offices waiting for reports from their juniors and members of the public is now long gone, according to the county police boss Adamson Bungei.”
Forget about two facts: one, that it is not easy to come across a fancy police office in the country, and two, that the introduction treats Bungei’s plan as a fulfilled mission.
Then the reporter offers a list of ranks targeted in this new powerful and ambitious plan.
“As part of his strategy to effectively fight crime in the city, Bungei has instructed all the subcounty police commanders, popularly known as OCPDs [Officer Commanding Division], Officers Commanding Police Stations (OCS) and Divisional Criminal Investigations Officers (DCIOs) to leave the comfort of their offices and move out to the field.”
There is more from Bungei: “I have instructed all the senior officers to get involved in patrols so they can be able to reach out to our customers (the public) and clearly understand their problems.”
Look, the National Police Service ranks gazetted officers and members of the inspectorate as senior officers, starting from inspectors, chief crime officers, OCPDs and above. They oversee so many junior officers, known as ‘other ranks’ in police-speak, who usually conduct patrols.
It’s therefore, untenable – if not outright disrespectful – for Bungei to include OCPDs in his tough new order. We only hope he was misquoted. Ranks are seriously respected among the uniformed officers.
Bungei is quoted as having introduced measures to bring operational harmony between the regular police officers and their cousins from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations. This, according to the reporter, is “to end the bad blood that had existed between the two” formations of the police service. We are not told when this bad relationship started and its impact on the operations of the police. In any case, the Administration Police also take part in patrols.
The reporter tells us how Bungei’s decision to introduce the community outreach programme has drastically reduced crime rate in the city. No! The officer did not initiate this programme. Community policing has been in the service for a long time.
The story goes on: “Mr Bungei says the heavy police presence in all corners of the city has been effective in controlling the emergence of armed youths who were terrorising Nairobi residents early this year … The boys were as daring as they were to send out signals that they could take over the city and make it a city of crime. But all these are now history as we have managed to control them.”
Where are the statistics to vouch for this claim? When did this all-corner deployment begin? Which areas were mostly affected? What are the current crime rates? Is it true that crime is now at level zero, because officers are deployed in all corners of the city? We are not told.
There are some must-do things the reporter was either unaware of or deliberately failed to consider in putting together this story.
One, he should have told us the types of crimes, where they were prevalent, during what days of the week and time. Two, the story totally failed to give readers some peek into the recent history of crime in Nairobi and the number of casualties and arrest of suspects. That information would then be contrasted with what Bungei said to enable readers judge the impact of the reforms, if at all.
Instead, the reporter went numb and let the police officer run away with his interview. No questions were asked, and no answers were given. Only notes were taken, and the story was written. That is unacceptable.
It is a requirement for all reporters to read widely on their beat, prepare adequately before setting out on assignments, and ask newsmakers sensible and cogent questions in a way that enables readers get a complete picture of whatever is reported.
Verdict: This story sounded like a public relations piece done for the Nairobi police boss. Only that it was done so shoddily it failed its purpose. Flatly.
