More than 40 percent of Kenyans have experienced abuses of power at the hands of the country's under-fire police, while 69 percent reported witnessing misconduct, an international monitor said on Tuesday.
The survey by the Washington-based International Justice Mission (IJM) covered a period between 2022 and 2024 -- before a wave of deadly youthful anti-government demonstrations, in which the police have been accused of using excessive force, began in June 2024.
But abuse was rife even before those protests, which rights groups say left more than 100 people dead, the IJM survey of 5,700 people found.
"The problem is entrenched within the system... (it) is rotten," Ayub Were, one of the lead authors of the IJM report, told AFP.
Young Kenyans -- the section of society leading the recent protests -- were the most likely targets, according to the survey.
One participant told the IJM that "the police over here view the youth as criminals".
According to respondents, the most prevalent forms of police misconduct were corruption at 55 percent, followed by harassment at 54 percent.
Thirteen percent of participants reported assaults causing "non-serious injury".
The majority of victims did not report abuses due to a lack of faith in the authorities, the report found.
- 'Nobody has faith' -
In 2015 one respondent, named as Patrick, was detained and beaten by police after being falsely accused of possessing a homemade pistol.
Though the charges were dropped after he eventually triumphed in court in 2019, Patrick said he could not face taking the officer to court.
"I couldn't fight that system," the civil servant told AFP. "Nobody has faith in the police."
According to the report, Kenya's political elites exercise considerable influence over the country's police watchdog and the courts, leaving most participants with little trust in the justice system.
Only seven officers were convicted between 2021 and 2024, a period in which 8,851 complaints were registered, the report said, citing official records.
"The state is using the police to violate citizens," one respondent said.
The IJM described the National Police Service (NPS) as "notorious", accusing it of disregard for human rights, unlawful arrests and unfair treatment.
An NPS spokesperson rejected the report's findings and questioned the IJM's impartiality.
The spokesperson told AFP that its officers do a "fantastic" job and that all complaints were properly investigated.
