In the video that has since gone viral, Mwangi donned full police uniform complete with a baton, as he broke down how the police service works.
Mwangi revealed that problems with the service began with the recruitment process, which involves humiliation and, in many cases, corruption and bribery.
Police assault a Kenyan on March 27, 2020, as the nationwide curfew commenced
File
“To become a police officer in this country, you have undergone humiliation. On day one of recruitment, you take off all your clothes and you’re inspected like an animal.
“After being inspected, you’re taken to a college and told that citizens are your enemy. When you leave college and find a place to stay, you’re put in a tiny iron sheet house to share with another family, it’s a bad life, undignified.
“When you join the police force, you’re told to leave your brain at the door, no thinking. You’re told you’re head is a lid for your neck or a dispenser for saliva,” he stated.
Mwangi noted that many confrontations between Kenyans and the police could be explained by their training, which he maintained was designed to teach them that citizens were their enemy.
“For example, when you’re leaving your workplace or just talking a walk. You’re harassed, you’re told come here, ‘What is your name?’
“You’re told to show your ID. When you do, you’re told to show you’re work ID. If you don’t have it you’re in trouble because being unemployed is a crime, you can be written down for vagrancy. And then you’re asked, where is something for the police? You know, police are poorly paid, and it is deliberate.
“They are poorly paid so that they can extort money from you. At Kiganjo, you’re told that a police officer should not be poor because the citizen is an ATM for police. When they see someone or a car, they see money. They are taught to extort and get bribes from you because they’re taught you are the enemy,” he claimed.
The activist then addressed the issue of police brutality, describing the use of live bullets at peaceful demonstrations as an example of their excesses.
He then accused the service of playing key roles in the murders of individuals on orders of the state; accusing the police of being involved in either killing or covering up the murders of prominent figures such as Pio Gama Pinto, Robert Ouko and Jacob Juma.
Mwangi went on to assert that for change to occur, the service needed to make radical reforms on how officers are recruited, trained and remunerated.
“Recruit brains. The way we recruit officers in this country is very corrupt, it’s a broken system where you have to be very undignified. Stop recruiting that way, recruit brains,” he insisted.
He additionally called for police stations to be upgraded to modern standards and for transparency in how police officers were promoted.
“Give officers a good environment to work in. Police stations right now are small, smelly places. Pay them very well that when I wake up in the morning I want my neighbour, my son or my daughter to become a police officer, right now they can’t dream of that.
“Let there be merit in promotions. At the moment you have to bribe to be promoted, this makes the police force very corrupt,” he stated.
Mwangi further urged the police to unionize and fight for their rights, additionally asking them to be humane as they go about their work.
He also called for Kenyans to remember that police officers were their brothers and sisters, noting that Kenya would be a much better place if police worked closely with regular citizens such as himself to take down those ruining the country.
Watch Boniface Mwangi’s video below:
