Why police officers behave badly after regime changes

Recruits at the Kenya Police Training College, Kiganjo, May 1957. [File, Standard]

What happens when law enforcers become lawbreakers? When Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua dressed down Nakuru County Commander Peter Mwanzo, for evicting some families from a disputed land without consulting, there was a national outcry.

He was echoing previous administrations' outrage. The police have always acted as instruments of regime protection from the time the Imperial British East African Company assembled a gang of men into what it called askaris in 1888 and professionalised them with imported trained officers from India.