Perceptions of Business Community on Kenya Police Service Law Enforcement Practices in Nairobi Central Business District

Abstract

All over the world, the interaction between the public and the police has over the years been characterized by suspicion, tension and hostilities. There have been numerous allegations and complains from members of the public on Kenya Police Service law enforcement practices which has led to differing public perceptions. This study sought to explore perceptions of business community on Kenya Police Service law enforcement practices in Nairobi Central Business Districtand was guided by three objectives. First, was to explore the perception of the business community on Kenya Police Service law (KPS) enforcement practices in NCBD from. Secondly, to establish public perception on the effectiveness of Kenya Police Service in law enforcement practices in NCBD from .and third to interrogate the level of cooperation between the public and the Kenya Police Service on law enforcement practices in NCBD from. This study was informed by symbolic interactionism theory. A descriptive survey design involving the use of questionnaires and in-depth interviews with key informants was used. This study used stratified random sampling to draw 120 respondents and purposive sampling of 12 key informants who were drawn from Business community leaders, Officers Commanding Stations and /or Division and selected Civil Society Organizations engaged in promoting and advocacy of best practices. Primary data was collected using semi structured interviews and questionnaires; while secondary data was collected from reports, journals and other publications. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, which included frequencies, percentages, cross tabulations. On the other hand, qualitative data from key informant interviews was coded and placed under various themes based on the objectives of the research. For quality control, tools were piloted so as to ascertain the content validity of the instruments and reliability was tested using pre- testing data sets and Cronbach‟s reliability. The reliability of the variables was assessed using Cronbach‟s alpha. This indicated that the instruments used to collect data from the respondents were dependable, reliable and yielded good results. This study revealed that the KPS law enforcement practices were a cause of concern in the NCBD, especially among business community because of the differing public perceptions of KPS law enforcement practices. This study also revealed that the public consider KPS law enforcements practices ineffective for fighting crime and reducing public disorder. The study further established that the level of cooperation between the KPS and the public was poor as evidenced by the reluctance from the public to seek police assistance because of the police uncaring and abusive behavior and inability to sanction criminal behavior among others. This study recommends that the KPS quickly establishes a personal credibility with all segments of the community, especially the business community. It also recommends that the KPS needs to initiate and strengthen patrols, strengthen watch programmes, sharing of information, door to door contacts, implement the use of improved hotline responses and also work to reduce response time to crimes. Given the widening public perception of KPS across the whole country, future studies should therefore, cover other cities and towns to enhance and compare generalization of these findings.