KENYA POLICE OVERVIEW, PART TWO: U.S. ASSISTANCE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 NAIROBI 001172 SENSITIVE SIPDIS AF/E FOR SUSAN DRIANO; INL FOR LENDSEY SMALLS AND KEVIN BLAKEMAN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ASEC KCRM KJUS PGOV KE SUBJECT: KENYA POLICE OVERVIEW, PART TWO: U.S. ASSISTANCE ¶1. Summary: This cable is the second in a three-part series on the Kenyan police forces. This cable summarizes our recent and planned engagement with and assistance to Kenyan law enforcement agencies. Part three will discuss challenges facing those agencies, progress to date on police reform, and how best to engage with the law enforcement sector going forward. ¶2. Kenyan police forces benefit from a wide range of assistance and training from a number of U.S. agencies, including the Departments of State, Justice, and Homeland Security. All three main police agencies, the Kenya Police Service (KPS),Kenya Administration Police (AP),and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) have received assistance, as has the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA),which is responsible for customs enforcement, and a diverse group of other agencies with relevant areas of responsibility, including the Immigration Service, Department of Public Prosecutions, Forest Service, Kenya Maritime Authority, the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, the judiciary, and Kenya Ports Authority. Building counterterrorism capacity, including enhanced border security and maritime security capabilities, has been the major focus of our assistance. Capacity building in core civilian police skills (for example, criminal investigation, victim and witness interviewing, evidence preservation) has not been our main focus. In the case of the KPS, it has also proven difficult to implement due to a lack of cooperation from the Police Commissioner. Disorganization and personnel transfers within the KPS have undermined the substainability of the training that has been provided. End summary. TARGETING CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT AND INTERDICTION ¶3. Personnel from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and related agencies (for example, the Kenya Port Authority (KPA),the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA),and the Immigration Service) have received extensive training, aimed largely at strengthening their capacity to interdict contraband ranging from radioactive materials to counterfeit goods. Although KRA customs officers have a law enforcement mandate, they were until recently overwhelmingly focused on revenue collection rather than interdiction. They do not carry guns, and would have to call in KPS personnel to investigate if they uncovered a crime in progress. Recent courses offered to the KRA and related agencies include: land border enforcement, targeting and risk management, international air cargo interdiction, establishing industry partnership programs, criminal prosecution, trial advocacy, and seaport enforcement. Because of the nature of border enforcement issues, the Department of Homeland Security/Customs and Border Protection (DHS/CBP) Attache at post has regional responsibilities and has focused providing regional workshops that help to build information sharing and professional networks between customs officials from the greater Horn of Africa and Great Lakes regions. In 2007, we made two major equipment donations totaling $443,500 to the KRA customs office. These donations were funded by the State Department's Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, Office of Export Control Cooperation (ISN/EXBS). BORDER SECURITY ASSESSMENT ¶4. In February 2009, personnel from the DHS/CBP Office of Border Patrol conducted a week-long assessment of the government of Kenya's (GOK's) proposed new border patrol program. Currently, the GOK does not have dedicated border patrol units; this responsibility has traditionally fallen largely on the AP. The GOK's vision is to create new dedicated border patrol units which will be jointly staffed by the AP and the security arm of the KWS. Creating these units will require the AP to add 3-4,000 new officers in the next few years, as well as specialized training and equipment. The initial assessment is the first step in our planned assistance to help stand up these new units. The next step, currently in the final planning stages, is CBP training of Kenyan personnel who will implement Kenya's National Border Patrol Program. This training will likely take place NAIROBI 00001172 002.2 OF 003 in July and August 2009. Then, the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) will fund a visit of AP and KWS personnel to the United States to observe CBP border patrol operations and programs in September 2009. This visit will be jointly organized by DHS/CBP and the DS Anti-Terrorism Assistance (ATA) program at post, overseen by the Regional Security Office (RSO). MEGAPORTS INITIATIVE ¶5. Kenya recently agreed to participate in the Department of Energy's Megaports Initiative. The Megaports Initiative, established in 2003, is designed to prevent terrorists from using or smuggling dangerous nuclear materials. The Initiative provides partner ports (in this case, the port of Mombasa) with state-of-the-art radiation detection equipment, software, and communications systems to assist port officials in detecting radioactive materials in cargo containers transiting the port. The MOU between the GOK and DOE was signed on April 15; DOE personnel are conducting a site assessment of the port as a prerequisite to follow-on training and equipment deployment. The first phase of Megaports training programs will begin in the next three months; the program is expected to be fully operational in Kenya by August 2010. CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM CAPACITY BUILDING ¶6. Embassy Nairobi has a Regional Legal Advisor (RLA) through the Department of Justice's Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance, and Training (DOJ/OPDAT) office and a Senior Law Enforcement Advisor (SLEA)through DOJ's International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (DOJ/ICITAP). The SLEA is funded through the Women's Justice and Empowerment Initiative (WJEI) and thus focuses her efforts on investigation and evidence collection in sexual assault cases. The RLA position is funded by the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism (S/CT). The RLA and SLEA have conducted a number of training activities aimed at building the capacity of police and prosecutors to successfully investigate and prosecute a variety of criminal cases. Recent joint training conducted by the RLA and SLEA include training on the implementation of Kenya's Sexual Offenses Act (SOA) and witness protection. Both advisors also contributed to drafting amendments to the SOA and to developing updated model charge sheets for police use. Upcoming SLEA trainings in 2009 include motor vehicle crime scene processing, trafficking in persons, and sexual assault forensic examiner training. The RLA has conducted additional training on digital evidence and cyber crimes, mutual legal assistance, piracy, public corruption, prosecutorial ethics, plea agreements, and trial advocacy. Planned RLA trainings include anti-terrorism financing, financial crimes and corruption, cyber-crime, plea bargaining, and gang and criminal organization investigations and prosecutions. It is important to note that the vast majority of criminal prosecutions in Kenya are carried out by police prosecutors, who generally lack formal legal training. The Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has less than 60 prosecutors to cover the entire country. Therefore, virtually all RLA and SLEA trainings include police personnel and build police capacity. ¶7. The FBI office at post has also provided training and equipment to the KPS, AP, and KWS. In February, the FBI conducted a public corruption investigation training for investigators and lawyers from the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission. Upcoming equipment grants include fingerprint kits for the KPS, AP, and KWS, and gyro-stabilized binoculars for use in KWS air surveillance operations. Though not yet approved by the Police Commissioner, the FBI has proposed providing monthly training and equipment to the KPS Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) on counter-terrorism and basic law enforcement skills. Approval is also pending for crime scene investigation training planned for June 2009. A course on terrorism financing and money laundering is currently planned for September 2009. ILEA AND COESPU TRAINING NAIROBI 00001172 003.2 OF 003 ¶8. Kenyan law enforcement officials also benefit from participation in courses offered by the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in Gaborone, Botswana. Participants for these courses are selected by the RSO. In 2007 and 2008, a total of 48 Kenyans attended specialized courses at ILEA funded by the United States. To date in 2009, a total of ten participants have completed coursework in financial forensics and money laundering. Upcoming courses in 2009 in which Kenyans will participate include personnel and facility security, wildlife investigations, and post blast investigation. The Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units (COESPU) is an international training center in Italy that trains stability police for peacekeeping operations and is co-sponsored by the United States as part of the Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI). COESPU focuses on a train-the-trainers approach for police who will deploy internationally as part of stability police units. The last COESPU course in which Kenyans participated was in spring ¶2007. We did not offer this training to Kenya in the run-up to the December 2007 elections, or in 2008 due to concerns about instability in Kenya and allegations of police involvement in post-election violence. In March 2009, Kenya had 955 military and civilian police personnel assigned to UN peacekeeping operations, ranking 24th of 118 troop contributing nations. Of the 955 personnel, 19 are civilian police officers. COMMUNITY POLICING SUPPORT ¶9. Following the post-election violence in early 2008, post applied for section 1207 funding to assist in reconstruction and reconciliation activities. Our initial proposal for $10 million was subsequently reduced to $8 million. We experienced a delay when our grant was reallocated to Georgia to address the crisis there, but are now expecting to receive the funding very soon. The section 1207 proposal has three pillars: building the Kenyan military's Army Engineer Corps' civil affairs capacity, increasing youth inclusion through economic and social empowerment, and a civilian police program focused on improving civilian-police relations. The planned police pillar will include funding for a technical advisor to conduct an assessment and to design and implement a program to strengthen police-community relations. Improving police-community relations is a key recommendation of the Waki Commission that investigated the post-election violence. COUNTER-TERRORISM ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING ¶10. The Bureau of Diplomatic Security's Anti-Terrorism Assistance program (DS/ATA) has been working in Kenya since ¶2004. Its budget for FY 2009 in Kenya is approximately $8 million. Much of its training efforts in FY 2008 and 2009 are focused on building the GOK's maritime security capacity, including courses on small boat operations, marine operations, coastal search and rescue, and port and harbor security management. Some of these courses are accompanied by equipment grants and related training. Other course topics in FY 2008 and 2009 focus on issues like border control management, fraudulent travel documents, protecting digital infrastructure, and internet investigations. DS/ATA provided a major digital forensic equipment grant to the KPS and AP in February 2009. Agencies trained by DS/ATA vary by course topic, but includeKPS (Anti-Terrorism Police Unit, Maritime Police Unit, and Criminal Investigation Division),AP, KWS, KRA, Kenya Ports Authority, Immigration Service, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Forestry Service, Ministry of Fisheries Development, and the Kenya Navy. RANNEBERGER