Kamukunji MP, Yusuf Hassan, encouraged the National Police Service (NPS) to borrow a leaf from Tanzania's strategies that advocate against the use of lethal force but actively involve the citizens in community policing.
He explained that Tanzanian officers largely use intelligence from citizens to arrest criminals, contrary to the scare tactics and forceful patterns employed by their Kenyan counterparts.
Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kithure Kindiki, he added, thus ought to employ citizen-friendly policing methods to curb the rising crime rate.
Further expounding on the ideologies, MP Hassan argued that the Tanzanian police force partnered with the community, which plays the watchdog role and acts as the eyes and ears of the police.
"Most informal settlement dwellers in Kenyan urban areas who might help divulge intelligence that might assist in reprimanding criminals and bringing them to justice have a strained relationship with enforcement officers," he advocated.
He condemned the strategy, philosophy and methodology applied in the Kenyan policing system underlining that they can never be used to address rising crime rates permanently.
Hassan further opined that Kenya's servicemen are accustomed to brutality whenever there is an upsurge in crime, to the extent of discouraging citizens from relating cordially with police due to alienation and fear.
Police were as well prone to imposing excessive force, leading to extra-judicial killings, according to the lawmaker and activist.
The MP's plight precedes President William Ruto's order to deploy officers from the General Service Unit (GSU) and the Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU) to handle the spiking cases of insecurity in Nairobi.
Interior CS, Kithire Kindiki, also confirmed the orders, announcing that the National Police Service (NPS) constituted a multi-agency team to patrol the city and its suburbs.
Human rights body Amnesty International Kenya, urged the deployed cops to fight crime within the confines of the law, stating that providing security is a police responsibility.
Kenyan police officers are trained to use non-violent means before opening fire, a law enshrined under the National Police Service Act of the Kenyan Constitution.
