2,000 Police officers medically unfit to be in service

The Inspector-General of Police Hillary Mutyambai has noted that about 2,000 police officers are mentally unfit to serve in the police service.

While addressing bishops and senior clergy of the Anglican Church in Nairobi on Tuesday, Mutyambai said that the findings were established after medical examinations were conducted on police officers.

“We have subjected all the officers to medical examination, and to our surprise, we got a big number. We isolated almost 2,000 police officers who are unfit to do their law enforcement work,” said Mutyambai.

According to the IG the process to manage some of the mentally unstable officers has already been initiated due to the high risk posed especially when the officers are armed.

“The Police Service has now started the process of managing some of them. To remove someone from work (because of medical grounds) is not easy. The government has its processes,” he said.

“Our tool of work is the gun, and when one bullet is discharged, the implications are serious.”

The remarks come at a time when cases of police suicide have been on the surge citing depression cases among law enforcers.

The task force opened up channels of communication among the officers as part of ways of detecting any form of stress among them. Police commanders were also directed to always be keen to detect any trigger that may lead to depression, stress, or mental illness and act immediately.

The program was meant to enhance their sensitivity to issues of stress and trauma they routinely encounter in their day-to-day activities.