Senior cops could be stressing juniors to death, says expert

The alarming cases of murder, suicide and violence among police officers have pushed a human rights body to petition the government to enlist the services of private therapists to assist in counselling.

This comes barely a month after a police officer killed six people, including his wife before turning the gun on himself in Kabete, Nairobi City County.

For this reason, the State has been urged to allow members of the National Police Service (NPS) to seek help from therapists so as to end rampant killings in the force.

The subject featured prominently during the country’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) scorecard on the state of Human rights in Kenya between 2010 to 2020.

Michael Kanyingi, who is a counselling psychologist and mental health expert, took time to highlight some of the challenges facing members of the security service.

Kanyingi explained, “The issue of police killings is deep. When someone decides to go on rampage and kill others or himself that is a straightforward diagnosis of mental health.”

He argued that there could be too much demand from senior officers to the junior officers thus in most cases, officers who turn guns on themselves are juniors.

The mental health expert said a high percentage of security officers go through a lot of trauma and it will be wise to allow them to seek counselling services outside the forces.

“When you have somebody working with you it will be hard to open up mostly when they are senior. In this case police should be allowed to seek counselling services from private experts,” he stated.

He added that the officers need to get motivational speakers to speak to them and have recreational needs catered for.

Some recommendations touching on the security sector in the report were that the government should enhance human rights training and awareness for law enforcers to end all violations.

“Ensure access to basic health care, education, food and other social care systems on a fair basis and in line with the principle of non-discrimination”, the report states.