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PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHNR #2401/01 3290414
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 250414Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY NAIROBI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1627
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHDR/AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM PRIORITY 6696
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 3348
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 3183
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFISS/FBI WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC PRIORITY
RUZEFAA/CDR USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE PRIORITY
RUZEFAA/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NAIROBI 002401 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/E FOR DRIANO, INL/AAE FOR ENGLISH, DOJ/ICITAP FOR 
LILLIAN BECKER, DOJ/OPDAT FOR JIM SILVERWOOD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ASEC KJUS KCRM EAID PGOV KE
SUBJECT: POLICE REFORM ADDITIONAL RESOURCES REQUEST 
 
REF: A. NAIROBI 2369 
     ¶B. NAIROBI 2252 
     ¶C. NAIROBI 1183 
     ¶D. NAIROBI 1172 
 
¶1. Summary: This cable is an action request. Please see para 
¶5. Following high-level discussions with the leadership of 
Kenya's law enforcement agencies (see ref B) and our review 
of the Police Reform Task Force's recommendations (see ref 
A), post's inter-agency team on police reform has identified 
five key areas that we urgently need to support with 
additional resources in order to help maintain momentum on 
police reform. These areas are: community policing; 
implementation of internal affairs oversight mechanisms; 
basic police skills training; and training on 
professionalism/police ethics, police codes of conduct, and 
use of force policies. Post requests $1 million in additional 
resources to provide this training using both subject matter 
experts already at post and additional expert trainers from 
the United States. In addition, post requests that $800,000 
in past year INL funding be reallocated to Kenya to conduct 
training and consultations in these priority areas. This 
funding is urgently needed as leverage to push implementation 
of police reform and to give us the capacity to calibrate 
implementation of our assistance step-by-step in accordance 
with what the Kenyan officials are prepared to do. In 
addition, we are drawing on limited existing mission 
resources to assist the reform process. End summary. 
 
CURRENT ACTIVITIES AND RESOURCES 
 
¶2. There are a number of programs and activities already in 
place aimed at building capacity in Kenya's security sector 
(see ref D), including programs implemented by the Department 
of Homeland Security Customs and Border Patrol agency 
(DHS/CBP); the Department of Justice's Federal Bureau of 
Investigation (DOJ/FBI), Office of International Criminal 
Investigative Training Assistance Program (DOJ/ICITAP), and 
Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance, and 
Training (DOJ/OPDAT); and the State Department Bureau of 
Diplomatic Security's Anti-Terrorism Assistance program 
(DS/ATA). Kenya also received a grant of $8 million in FY08 
section 1207 funding, of which approximately $620,000 is 
allocated to a police pillar aimed at improving 
civilian-police relations and implementing key reform 
recommendations. 
 
¶3. Existing initiatives will be repackaged as an initial 
response to police reform objectives. Post has prioritized 
the following five areas of police reform: community 
policing; effective implementation of existing internal 
oversight mechanisms; basic police skills training; and 
training on professionalism/police ethics and modern codes of 
conduct/use of force policies. For example, the DS/ATA 
program has three police patrol boats (each valued at 
$90,000) ready for donation. Two are slated for the Maritime 
Police Unit of the Kenya Police Service (KPS/MPU); the other 
will be given to the Administration Police (AP). The 
Ambassador plans to use the handover ceremony for these boat 
donations in Mombasa as a showcase for a major statement on 
police reform that lays out detailed priorities and our 
planned support for those priorities. S/CT funded upgrades to 
sports facilities in the Lamu area that are being implemented 
in cooperation with the police are an ideal platform for 
launching a discussion on community policing. We noted in ref 
B that both the KPS and AP have frozen recruitment and pulled 
a total of 4,000 officers from the field for refresher 
training at the police academies. We believe this presents a 
unique opportunity for U.S. trainers to engage with police 
officers at the academies on the priority subjects outlined 
above. We propose that all trainers scheduled to offer 
courses in Kenya (for example, FBI and DS/ATA instructors) be 
authorized to stay a few extra days after their planned 
training is finished to offer guest lectures at the 
academies, either on one of the priority areas listed in para 
2 or on another applicable core area of expertise. Subject 
matter experts already at post (for example, the Legatt, 
Resident Legal Advisor, and Senior Law Enforcement Advisor) 
will offer guest lectures tailored to reform priorities. 
 
 
NAIROBI 00002401  002 OF 002 
 
 
TARGETING PRIMARY FOCUS AREAS 
 
¶4. Although the final report of the Police Reform Task Force 
is not yet public, task force members highlighted in a recent 
presentation that it contains more than 200 separate 
recommendations (see ref A). After reviewing a near-final 
version of the report and following inter-agency discussion 
at post, we want to focus resources on the five priority 
areas discussed in para 1. While we generally agree with the 
task force recommendations, we note that the Task Force 
deferred the establishment of effective external and internal 
oversight recommendations, preferring that they be addressed 
via constitutional reform. We have no objection to that 
approach, but note that, in the interim, internal oversight 
mechanisms already exist on paper and should be supported 
immediately, as they are absolutely critical to promoting 
police professionalism and ethics and to repairing damaged 
police-community relations stemming from past abuses and 
corruption (see ref C). We will also continue to push Kenya's 
law enforcement leadership to make good on its pledges to 
improve conditions of work for police officers (for example, 
by paying arrears in allowances owed to officers and 
improving housing) as well as to overhaul hiring, 
assignments, transfers, and promotions practices completely 
to make them clear, transparent, and fair. 
 
RESOURCE REQUEST 
 
¶5. In his October 22 letter to President Kibaki, President 
Obama underlined the importance of rule of law reform and 
said, "The United States is prepared to provide support for 
the implementation of police and judicial reforms." Post is 
requesting $1 million in assistance to offer training to core 
police populations, including new recruits, trainers, 
officers undergoing refresher training, and recently promoted 
officers undergoing training to prepare them for the next 
level of leadership. Funding will be used to provide training 
at the police academies and to send additional Kenyan 
officers to relevant courses at ILEA in Botswana. Funding can 
also support targeted consultations between U.S. technical 
experts from DOJ and State and Kenyan officials on issues 
including internal affairs, community policing and public 
relations, which have the secondary benefit of providing a 
useful gauge in determining political will to implement 
reforms. In addition, post requests that $800,000 in past 
year INL funding (originally allocated as two grants of 
$300,000 and $500,000) be immediately reallocated to post for 
funding basic police skills training at the academies, to be 
implemented by subject matter experts from DOJ/ICITAP and 
INL. 
RANNEBERGER