CIAO DATE: 03/2013
March 2013
This paper examines the various opportunities and challenges facing the KPRs in Kenya’s Turkana and Laikipia counties, and considers in particular the management and control of reservists’ 'rearms, given the wider problems of arms control and insecurity in Kenya’s peripheral areas. It seeks to relate the changing economic environment in rural parts of these counties to the evolving role of the KPRs. The paper highlights how each distinct context (Turkana with its natural resource economy and Laikipia with its conserva tion tourism industry) is adapting the KPRs’ traditional role. These new roles, as we shall see, are not always positive. Economic pressure, competition for resources (both natural and technical), weak or non-existent operational policy, a lack of oversight or governing structure, the attraction of secondary employment, and the constant -ow of destabilizing small arms from neighbouring con-ict zones are straining the KPR towards breaking point. Firearm misuse and criminal behaviour by KPRs are exacerbating tensions in Kenya’s remote rural regions. This paper will argue that without the immediate implementation of operational and small arms controls, the KPR risks evolving into armed militia groups.
Resource link: Policing the Periphery: Opportunities and Challenges for Kenya Police Reserves [PDF]