IPOA is a waste of taxpayers’ cash
By Clay Muganda, June 14, 2025Since Sunday, Kenya’s law enforcement and investigative agencies have been putting their limbs in all their orifices while explaining how Albert Ojwang, a 31-year-old teacher, died at the hands of our murderous police officers.
Considering that this was not an accident, as he was healthy at the time of arrest in Homa Bay and booking at Central Police Station in Nairobi, according to the police, it should be openly accepted that he was murdered by our ill-trained police officers.
We should not sugarcoat his murder by saying that the toothless entity called the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) will conduct investigations and tell Kenyans the truth.
Whenever Kenyans complain about the highhandedness of the police, IPOA is repeatedly mentioned so Kenyans can cool down, and government apologists and politicians say that the people need to exercise restraint until investigations are concluded.
This only happens when the politicians are not the victims. They also never speak to the fact that the training regimen of the police needs to be changed from the current beastly mode to a humane one, so they know how to deal with human beings.
Barely three years ago, former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua was enraged over the colour of the Kenya Police uniform after it was changed to cobalt blue from the ugly blue that had been the force’s (before it became a police service, in name only) badge of dishonour for ages.
Gachagua, who was then MP for Mathira, had been a victim of police highhandedness when he was arrested at his Nyeri home in a dawn raid in July 2021 and driven to Nairobi half-dressed to be interrogated.
He was part of the coterie of then-Deputy President William Ruto and, together with his lawyers, said he was being harassed by the State because of his association with Ruto.
Gachagua is not the only Kenyan who has been considered an enemy of the State and arrested, then driven hundreds of kilometres to Nairobi for interrogation or whatever reason.
The only difference is that he lived to tell the tale, unlike the young Ojwang and many others, but after that, his only grievance was the colour of the police uniform.
Of course, Gachagua cannot be solely held responsible for the police brutality and subsequent murders, but he is a perfect example of high-profile politicians who only speak about the murderous mentality of the police when they are victims, but forget that several voiceless Kenyans are maimed and killed daily by police officers.
Our politicians only see the brutal side of the police when they are arrested or harassed, and then they call for meaningless reforms.
The changes many politicians and Gachagua have always wanted to happen in the police are just cosmetic – and sartorial.
When he was Deputy President, he did not call for any changes in the training regimen of police officers so they could stop maiming and killing Kenyans with impunity.
He was no longer a victim of police brutality since he was on the good side of the State; he was in government.
Kenyans suffer at the hands of the police and we are told that IPOA will investigate, find out what exactly happened, and bring the culprits to book, but nothing changes because the police have been trained to be brainless and heartless – to kill first then the bosses will grope for excuses, nay, lies.
Several calls for police reforms have been made over the past two decades, and there have been some changes here and there, but we still have the brutal, murderous force that knows nothing else apart from maiming and killing Kenyans.
Kenyans have accepted that the so-called police service is a den of corruption, and have learnt to work around that, but it is its murderous mentality that is befuddling since police officers are notorious for killing younger Kenyans and making children orphans, and turning mothers and fathers into widows and widowers.
This notoriety has grown over the past year despite promises by President Ruto that police brutality and extrajudicial killings will never happen during his term in office.
Never in Kenya’s recent history have the police been so brazen, so trigger-happy, so brutal and happily murderous that they shoot and kill in broad daylight younger Kenyans peacefully protesting and then invoke the name of IPOA as they shamelessly deny any involvement.
IPOA has limited powers and is a reactive entity that only talks – a lot – after the police have murdered Kenyans, and promises to get to the bottom of the matter, but fails to even get close to it.
The police know that, and that is why, after officers have committed murders, their bosses immediately issue statements of denial and say that they have referred the matter to IPOA, which, in essence, has to rely on them for evidence.
Ideally, IPOA is a waste of taxpayers’ money and should be disbanded, but before that is done, the police training regimen needs a rethink.
The writer is the Managing Editor of the Alliance for Science (AfS). These views are solely his and do not necessarily reflect the position of AfS or its partners.