Gender mainstreaming in the Kenya national police service and promotion of national security in Starehe Sub-County, Nairobi City County

Abstract

Failure to undertake gender mainstreaming within the police service can lead to ineffective policies for ensuring national security is enhanced in Kenya. Without gender mainstreaming in Kenya, promotion or enhancement of national security is not taken as a collective responsibility. The purpose of the study was to examine gender mainstreaming in the Kenya National Police Service and promotion of national security in Starehe Sub-County, Nairobi City County. Specifically, the study sought to: explore the factors that have precipitated the need for gender mainstreaming in the sphere of National security within National Police service, determine gender mainstreaming strategies that have been adopted in order to promote national security within national police service, examine the gender mainstreaming effectiveness in promoting National Security within the National Police service and assess the efficacy of existing gender mainstreaming policies and legal provision in promoting National security within the National Police Service. This study adopted descriptive survey research design. The target population was 490 including Kenya police service officials, administrative police service officials and directorate criminal investigation officials in Starehe SubCounty. The sample size was 221 who included were drawn from Starehe Sub-County selected using random and stratified sampling technique. The study purposively sampled all administrative and DCI officials for interviews. Primary “data was obtained using self-administered questionnaires and” key informant interviews. Key informant interviews had structured questions addressing the objectives of the study. The key informants for the interviews included sub-county police commander, sub-county criminal investigation officer, critical infrastructure protection unit (CIPU) officer in Starehe Sub-County. The “researcher obtained an introduction letter from the university and a research permit.” The questionnaires were administered to the sampled Kenya police service officials, administrative police service officials and directorate criminal investigation officials in Nairobi City County using a drop and pick in administering the questionnaire. Data “analysis was done with assistance of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Version 25.0).” Descriptive statistics was used for Quantitative data where “frequencies, percentages, mean scores and standard deviations were estimated.” The findings for quantitative data were presented in Tables. The study found that factors that have precipitated the need for gender mainstreaming in national police service including frequent gender-based violence, implementation of the gender rule, sexual harassment, and sexism and increase in gender-based discriminations. The study established that gender mainstreaming strategies promote national security within national police service. The study also found that equal treatment is integrated into steering processes of national police service. The study established that gender mainstreaming strategies promote national security within national police service (76%). Gender mainstreaming strategies ensures there is no preferential consideration in promotion based on gender (72.8%). The study concluded that existing gender mainstreaming policies and legal provision have been efficient in promoting national security in Kenya (73.5%). The study recommends that there is need for officers need to ensure gender mainstreaming addresses all the factors that precipitate its implementation. There is need for central government to come up with appropriate gender mainstreaming strategies in order to promote national security.