Community policing is a widespread paradigm around the world, and many developing countries are now evolving and formalizing community policing (COP) models. This paper addresses how the contextual features influence the design of COP models and the potential implications of these models in a post-colonial developing country. It examines two contested national COP initiatives in Kenya. The County Policing Authority (CPA) provides the legal framework for COP in the new Kenyan Constitution, and Nyumba Kumi (NK) is a neighborhood watch initiative. The Kenyan case shows how COP strategies are changing due to shifts in the contextual features and how the range of contextual features interact with each other. In Kenya, COP is strongly tied to politics and power structures, and these are highly influenced by ethnicity. The Kenyan COP strategies follow the political dividing lines in the country. There are contrasting ideological perspectives on security structure that can roughly be characterized as one supporting the decentralization of security (CPA) and another favoring centralization (NK). The history of tension and violence between ethnic groups restricts the President’s willingness to decentralize security and completely embrace the CPA strategy. In contrast, the rising threat of terrorism and violent extremism has led the government to emphasize COP strategies, with a focus more on surveillance and information flow than on democratization and police reform. Thus, COP has become more of an instrument for surveillance than a tool for protecting the citizenry. We argue here that COP models building on such criteria are counterproductive and are likely to fail due to their own limitations.

1. Community policing in Kenya:
Protecting citizens – or an
instrument for surveillance?
Presented at the 2018 Annual Convention of international Studies
Association, San Francisco
Stian Lid and
Clifford Collins Omondi Okwany
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under
grant agreement No 653909
stian.lid@nibr.hioa.no clok@nmbu.no

2. UNDERSTANDING OF COP
PHILOSOPHY BASED ON:-
• mutual trust between Community and Police.
• Changing Police from a force to service
STRATEGY BASED ON:-
• Partnership – Community and police working together
• Problem-solving –
• Problem oriented –identifying and analysing spesific
crime
• Proactive – controling situation
• Responsive –positive and quick reaction
• Reassurance - removal of doubt and fear

3. Twitter.com

4. Community policing initiatives
County policing Authority
- Kenyan constitution 2010
- Police reform
- Police-citizenry relations
- New framework
- Chaired by elected Governors
Nyumba Kumi
- Respond on terror attack in 2013
- Neigborhood initiatives
- Making public responsible
- Old constitutional framework
- Chaired by appointed County
Commisioner

5. Contextual features
Contextual
features
County policing Authority
(CPA)
Nyumba Kumi (NK)
Security
context
Post election 2007 Terror attacks and violent
extremism
Political and
ideological
context
Democratisation and
governance reforms
Decentralisation of
Government support
Centralisation of security
International
context
Donors involved in
governance and police
reforms, and CPA
Divided support by donors
President lukewarm to donor
involvement

6. Implications
COMMUNITY POLICING AUTHORITY
• Institutional and structural level
• Localising COP
• Donor friendly
NYUMBA KUMI
• Personalising COP (president complete authority over
State)
• Doesn’t address key factors for COP
• Interfers with reform process.

7. Conclusion
• Range of contextual features influence COP
• Political influence significant on COP strategies
• Violent extremism -> surveillance and control ->
counterproductive
• Political unwillingness of reforms

8. ThankYou