Police brutality, extortionist culture top queries in IG Mutyambai’s inaugural live chat » Capital News

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 22 – Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai was on Monday confronted with dozens of questions ranging from corruption, unresolved killings and extortion, as he embarked on an hour-long social media engagement with Kenyans on Twitter, the first since he took office in April last year.

The conversation that kicked off from 11am and ended at noon gave social media users an opportunity to voice the concerns with the police boss and agitate for action.

Engaging under the #EngageTheIG hashtag, the IG urged Kenyans not to shy away from reporting cases of police brutality, while promising prompt action where necessary.

“We encourage all citizens to keep reporting cases of police brutality. I’m aware some of these cases occur at night and others in remote parts of Kenya,” the Inspector General advised.

He advised Kenyans to record incidents where police officers are infringing on the law and share with the National Police Service for action.

“I depend on you to reign in on errant officers even as we embark on retraining all officers,” the IG said.

During the live session, the IG assured police reforms are still on course. He identified operationalization of paperless payment of fines and digitization of the Occurrence Book (OB) as top priorities.

“We did a pilot project in Kasarani which was successful and now we await rolling out nationwide this coming financial year,” IG Mutyambai said.

On instant fines, he said the National Police Service is in the process of drafting a legislation for parliament’s approval.

“Do not give money to any police officer. Report the matter to Internal Affairs Unit,” the officer said in a tweet tagged to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) and the National Police Service Commission.

But what about the police welfare and mental health?

“We can’t expect frustrated human being to take care of others especially in these hard times. Take care of the officers so that they take care of us,” a user, @v_sirv, asked.

In his response, the IG said the police service will continuously address existing gaps to improve the general welfare of police officers.

“I’m doing everything possible to ensure we improve on the welfare of officers with a view to improving psychosocial support frameworks. #EngageTheIG.”