Enhancing Democratic policing in Kenya

CHRIPS undertook a comprehensive research study to establish the gaps in research and policy understanding of policing public protests and gatherings in Kenya. Management of public gatherings and protests by the police remains a key weakness and gap in police transformation. Police still see and tend to respond to protests as a threat to public order and see their role as that of suppressing, even violently, such threats. Further, the police responses to the opposition protests speak to a larger problem of how they perceive and manage public gatherings and protests. The constitutional expectation that the police would act to facilitate the exercise of the right to assemble and to protests is yet to be translated into police practice.This took place in the period of June 2018 – August 2019.

Key outputs:

Policy briefs

Police management of public assemblies in Kenya

Policing protests in Kenya: Policy options from new research

Commentaries

Comments on the proposed Public Order Amendment Bill 2019

New amendment Bill unfairly targets protest organisers 

How should police arrest persons with disabilities?

High Court decision on demos offends constitutional right of assembly

International conference on managing public assemblies on 23rd July 2019

Launch of an edited journal “Policing Protests in Kenya” 22nd August 2019