The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) tactics of using Twitter to curb crime have attracted the attention of international media.
The Washington Post, the biggest newspaper in the US capital of Washington DC, on Tuesday, March 2 featured how the unit had used Twitter to narrate their methods to fight crime in the country.
DCI boss George Kinoti explained to the American media house why the department saw it wise to use Twitter.
“For a very long time in Kenya, police have been thought of as killers. See a policeman? You run. Nothing good could come of it,” he said. “If we want the public’s confidence, we have to show them we are not all like that - we do work for them.”
The feature also saw the DCI unveil the 29-year old police constable, Johan Kimani, who runs their official Twitter account which has nearly one million followers.
Kimani told the Washington Post that he had hoped to become a journalist, but ended up as a police constable.
“Kenyans from top to bottom have embraced Twitter as their source of information. What I’ve learned is that people want thrills. You must feed your followers. That’s how the word gets out,” said Kimani.
The US-based media house noted that due to the increased number of cases of police brutality, the police have some serious Public Relations (PR) to do to save their image.
Under the leadership of Kinoti, the PR team has grown to eight. All the PR team members are under 35 years old.
Inspector Michael Mugo, head of the PR team noted that they get actionable tip-offs via Twitter.
“A lot of information slides directly into our DMs, especially now that we are tweeting more often I’d like to think we’ve made crime-fighting more accessible to people, by speaking their language,” said Inspector Mugo.
Kinoti acknowledged that the police department has not been significantly reformed since colonial times but assured that the new changes would be fruitful in the longterm.
