Program Description

While community-policing is called for in the Kenyan Constitution of 2011, Kenyan police units have had many challenges operationalizing non-tactical community engagement strategies to counter violent extremism. BSTP fills a training gap in Kenyan police units by providing training on community engagement through the provision of knowledge and skills to increase their ability to manage conflict nonviolently and build effective trust-based relationships with the communities they serve. The program is a critical resource for police units operating along the Kenya-Somalia border to more effectively engage communities and reduce terrorist threats to both civilians and police.

Trainings

USIP’s trainings incorporate a relationship-based approach — all skills are developed for the purpose of building or healing relationships among the parties in conflict with one another, while managing the conflict itself. All trainings involve practical exercises and are sequenced in such a way that maximizes opportunity to practice skills as the training unfolds. The training has been closely integrated with professional and tactical skills training — including those conducted by the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Services Antiterrorism Assistance program (ATA) — to ensure that officers view the skills gained from the USIP training as an essential element in their toolkit. The trainings are designed to meet the specific needs of BPU and GSU so that the institutions are able to sustain and deliver them beyond USIP engagement.

There are three trainings that USIP implements with BPU and GSU:

1. Community Engagement: This training increases the capacity of the BPU and GSU to manage conflicts nonviolently and to effectively partner with communities along the Kenya-Somalia border to interdict terrorist suspects more effectively and to reduce drivers of violent extremism. The training includes content on prejudice awareness and reduction, communication and conflict management skills.
2. Gender-Informed Community Engagement: This training increases the capacity of the BPU and GSU to identify, understand and respond to the security needs of everyone in a community, no matter their gender identity. The training focuses on supporting officers in understanding and assessing how gender impacts security risks for individuals and applying gender-responsive approaches to appropriately address the security risks.
3. Trauma-Informed Policing: This training increases the capacity of BPU officers to recognize and manage personal traumatic stress and engage in communities more productively through awareness of trauma’s effects on behaviours and attitudes. The training focuses on supporting BPU officers with the knowledge, skills and tools necessary to recognize and manage personal traumatic stress and to recognize and address signs of trauma in communities to more effectively carry out their duties.

Impact

• Over 1,000 officers have been engaged to date.
• USIP has trained a cadre of 25 dialogue facilitators, including 12 officers representing the BPU and 13 community-based organizations, who implemented more than 20 dialogues in four communities along the Kenya-Somalia border to identify and problem-solve security-related issues. 
• USIP is developing a cadre of 76 BPU and GSU trainers who will continue to deliver trainings within their institutions beyond USIP engagement. 
• BPU and GSU have committed to integrating USIP training content into their core curricula.

Testimonials