Kenyan police commence digitisation of physical records to tackle manipulation

Kenya’s police force has commenced the digitisation of its physical records. This ambitious effort to digitize the Police Occurrence Book (OB) has now covered 76 stations around Nairobi, with more stations across the country expected to be integrated soon. This aligns with the East African nation’s strides to make government services available online. 

For clarity, OBs are journals or registers where police officers record virtually everything that occurs in the station at a given period. This ranges from the number of people attended to in a day to times when a citizen honours an invitation to help with an ongoing investigation. 

The process intends to tackle many issues with Kenya’s policing. According to Noor Gabow, the country’s Deputy Inspector General of Police (Administration), the digitization drive will extend to other areas so that cases of records being tampered with will decline. This miniature also expects to simplify the process of recording and reporting crimes, thereby optimizing police performance in terms of crime response rate.

Gabow added that most police personnel had received training regarding digital OB usage, ensuring maximum efficiency.  “The reports entered will be subject to monitoring by ward, county and regional commanders, the Inspector General and other top commanders,” he explained. 

Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Interior Kithure Kindiki claimed the digital OB would allay citizens’ worries about the constant disappearance of case files at police stations. With every piece of information stored online and backed up on the cloud, the above concern is likely to phase out. Additionally, the shift from manual to online is expected to diminish corruption by limiting “physical interactions and brokers”. 

Aside from the Police OB, Kindiki intends to introduce a digital police complaint system and citizen review of law enforcement agents. Kenyans will be able to do the above and more using the Gava Mkononi (eCitizen) application, an outlet dedicated to offering government services. 

Using Gava Mkononi, people can lodge complaints about the conduct of any law enforcement officer. It doesn’t end there. The Independent Policing Oversight Authority, the government agency responsible for monitoring police conduct, will publish real-time updates of current investigations on Gava Mkononi. Citizens can also report extreme cases of misconduct like deaths and injuries caused by police officers. 

The road to digitizing the OB began in 2017 when the National Police Service was advised to stop using the physical version in its stations. Two years later, the first virtual OB was unveiled at the police station in Kasarani. Speaking at the event, former police Inspector General Hillary Mutyambai claimed the project would encourage transparency and accountability at the station level. 

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The march towards a digital Kenya 

In May 2023, Kenya’s President William Ruto shared that his government had digitized over 5,000 public services so far. Among the expected outcomes of this ambition are the reduction of unnecessary red tape and improved transparency in service delivery. To empower citizens, especially its growing crop of content creators, with high-speed internet connectivity, Ruto also announced a collaboration with tech giant Google to establish 25,000 free Wi-Fi hotspots across Kenya. 

Aside from the police OB, Kenya has recorded the successful migration of other essential services. For instance, the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse now issues licenses for alcohol importation and exportation using the Gava Mkononi app. Beyond license issuance, rehabilitation centres for addicts can now partake in the accreditation process virtually. 

Kenya is galloping towards the status of a digital economy, and offering essential services online like the ones mentioned above is a great component of a larger plan.