Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr. Fred Matiang’i has urged security officers to develop a rapport with Kenyans they serve and lean towards more communal inclusion. Speaking at the NPS Senior Staff College in Loresho, Nairobi, CS Matiang’i insisted that it’s President Uhuru Kenyatta’s desire to see the police force develop into a service, “Engaging with communities, with the people we are managing is very critical to the work we are going to do,” he said.
The CS said that in the past, people viewed security officers as unreachable and usually harsh but the situation should now change, “That madness is gone, we have to police in a new environment,” he said, adding that meetings should be held with residents and relations improved with faith-based and civil society organizations in the respective communities. He said that some of these have better ideas concerning communities and understand the communities better than officers. “Long gone are the days when we thought it’s more powerful and good to stay away, to be aloof,” he added. The Interior CS noted that cases of policing success in different areas reveal it was as a result of good relations between officers and the communities.