The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) is seeking more staff and resources to expand its monitoring of the National Police Service, saying its current workforce is too small to effectively cover more than 1,100 police stations and about 130,000 officers across the country.
IPOA Chair Duncan Ojwang on Tuesday said the authority has about 330 employees, leaving its teams stretched as they handle investigations, inspections and other oversight duties across Kenya.
Speaking on Radio Generation, he said the staffing gap has made it difficult for IPOA to move beyond investigating complaints and cases to carrying out more regular audits and inspections of police stations, detention facilities and policing activities.
Ojwang said the authority wants to increase its presence at the county level so that its officers can monitor police conduct more closely and assess conditions in facilities operated by the National Police Service.
“We don’t only want to do investigations. We think, and we have a plan to do the auditing and inspection, because I think that is more proactive also, and equally important that we visit the police house, we visit the detention facilities, we look at the logs, we look at the OB, we interview the people who are detained. We look, we observe the structures, whether their rights are violated, and we do reports.”
IPOA's mandate includes investigating deaths and serious injuries linked to police action, probing police misconduct, monitoring policing operations and inspecting police premises and detention facilities.
The authority is also required to review and audit investigations carried out by the Internal Affairs Unit of the National Police Service.
It has powers to begin investigations on its own initiative and take over cases where it is not satisfied with how a complaint has been handled through the police internal affairs system.
Ojwang said IPOA's eight regional offices cover large areas, making it difficult for its teams to maintain regular contact with police stations and officers under their areas of responsibility.
“IPOA has investigators across the eight regions, but the regions are still too broad for effective oversight. They were largely structured along the old provincial boundaries. We therefore want to move towards a county-based approach because that is where the police stations and officers are.”
The push for more staff comes as the authority continues to receive complaints and conduct inspections in different parts of the country.
According to IPOA's January-June 2024 performance report, the authority received and processed 1,943 complaints during the period.
It conducted 597 investigations, with 42 files forwarded to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for review. IPOA also carried out 723 inspections of police premises and detention facilities.
The authority recorded four convictions during the period, while 136 cases were cumulatively before the courts as at June 30, 2024.
Ojwang said IPOA is engaging Parliament in a bid to secure more resources that would allow it to recruit additional personnel and improve its reach.
“At the moment, IPOA has about 330 employees, and we continue to engage Parliament for additional funding to recruit more staff. The regions are vast, and our personnel are spread very thinly across many police stations. Even in areas such as Nakuru within the Rift Valley region, the workload is substantial. We therefore need to increase our capacity to ensure more effective oversight.”
The authority's role in proactive monitoring has also been seen during major public events, where its teams have documented police conduct and incidents involving both officers and civilians.
In its report on the policing of the June and July 2025 protests, IPOA recorded 65 deaths, injuries to 342 civilians and 171 police officers, as well as destruction and looting of public and private property.
The authority said it registered 48 complaints during the June 25 protests and a further 70 complaints during the July 7 Saba Saba demonstrations.
Ojwang said regular inspections are important not only for identifying possible rights violations but also for finding structural and operational challenges within the police service.
He cited the management of police stations as one area where IPOA's oversight had helped push for changes.
“One thing that I was successfully lobbied for is that each police station and each OCS must be an AIE holder, because you’ll find that before that, the OCS is here, but he does not have cash to do a few things which are necessary in that police station, like fuel, like even food, and to buy things even for the cell here.”
Ojwang said IPOA's work also covers police training, professionalism and welfare, which he linked to the quality of service provided by officers.
“If you have a professional police, a well-trained police, you have the structure of the police that is responsive to their welfare. Obviously, then you have done a good part on professionalism of the police and the discipline of the police and the output will be better.”
IPOA said its inspection, research and monitoring work is aimed at ensuring police premises meet required standards and that policing operations are carried out in line with constitutional rights and other legal requirements.