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Police face mental health crisis as report reveals inadequate counselling services
Recruits in a parade during a past pass-out ceremony at Kenya Police College Kiganjo.
Counselling services for police officers are strained and inadequate, leaving the men and women in uniform exposed to mental health challenges, a new report shows.
The audit of the systems, policies, procedures and practices of the National Police Service has returned a shocking verdict, revealing that the crucial services were strained. The audit was conducted by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), which seeks to tame corruption, enhance service delivery and restructure Kenya's police operations.
According to the audit report, there are an inadequate number of counsellors in the NPS at the formations, counties, sub-counties, stations and training institutions, compared to the large numbers of police officers.
“The audit established that Kisii County, for instance, had only one counsellor handling a substantive workload as highlighted in the monthly counselling report dated April 28, 2025,where there were over 70 cases attended to. These included loss and grief, debriefing, substance-related and addictive disorders, trauma and stress, as well as bipolar disorder and depression cases,” the report states.
In Isiolo County, only two counsellors have been deployed to provide services to officers in the entire county.
“In some instances, NPS did not facilitate counsellors to travel and meet their clients. For instance, the two counsellors in Isiolo County lacked transport facilitation to reach officers in far-flung banditry prone areas, most of whom have witnessed horrific scenes that require counselling services to manage stress and trauma,” the reports says.
The report comes amid recent revelations by the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) Chief Executive Officer, Peter Leley, that the counselling services were strained.
National Police Service Commission CEO Peter Leley.
A few months ago, Mr Leley appeared before the National Assembly’s Committee on Cohesion and Equal Opportunities, and revealed that the current regional counselling centres are not adequate.
The NPSC has counselling centres in eight regions in the country: Embu and Machakos in Eastern region; Lamu and Mombasa in Coast; Kisumu and Kisii in Nyanza; Nakuru and Eldoret in Rift Valley; Nyeri and Kiambu in Central; Mandera, Isiolo and Garissa in North Eastern; Kakamega in Western; and in Nairobi region at the Nairobi regional police, SGB, General Service Unit (GSU) headquarters and Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) academy.
This leaves police officers in far-flung areas such as Turkana, Samburu, Baringo and West Pokot vulnerable.
In his submissions to the committee, Mr Leley explained that the commission recruited and deployed 38 counsellors and social workers to the regions and 12 centres in the financial years 2021/2022 and 2022/2023.
However, the counsellors available cannot cope with the high demand.
“There is need for recruitment of additional counsellors, social workers and technical staff to be posted to the regions in order to provide additional counselling services,” said Mr Leley.
He told the parliamentary committee that the commission has established five regional offices – in Mombasa, Garissa, Kakamega, Kisumu and Nairobi – to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in serving police officers.
Members of Parliament also raised concern over the few counselling centres available.
“The eight regional counselling centres are not sufficient enough to provide psychological support to police officers,” said committee chairman Adan Yusuf Haji (Mandera West MP).
“We want the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) to enhance counselling services to police officers to save them from untimely death resulting from stress and other psychological issues. The current regional centres are not adequate,” added Mr Haji.
It also emerged that the centres available were too far from the officers they are supposed to serve.
For instance officers serving in Samburu, Baringo and Turkana can only access the services either in Eldoret and Nakuru.
“The country has been losing many officers through suicide due to stress and other challenges and the NPSC should urgently address the matter by dispatching more counsellors to serve the officers. Police officers are heroes who risk their lives to protect us and we cannot afford to watch as they shoot themselves and their colleagues,” said Luanda MP Dickson Maungu.
“It is tough for an officer from my rural home in Luanda to travel many kilometres to Kakamega for counselling services. We want NPSC to make such services easily accessible at their police stations,” he added.
Research has shown that more law enforcement officers take their own lives than are killed in the line of duty.
A recent US -based research conducted by the Addition Center established that police officers are at a higher risk of committing suicide than any other profession.
According to Dr Reuben Osiemo, most police officers suffer from trauma because part of their work involves securing crime scenes, investigating horrific crimes and responding to life-threatening situations, including traumatising ones such as murders and suicides.
“The exposure to tragic events leaves police officers with mental health issues, which escalate to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression,” Dr Osiemo told the Nation. “Most also work for long hours, leaving them anxious and hopeless and as a result depressed.”
MPs now want the NPSC to increase the number of counselling centres, and to post a sufficient number of counsellors and therapy experts to the centres and to police stations, posts and divisions.
There has been an increase in cases of police officers taking their own lives, as well as incidents involving attacks on colleagues and family members, raising concerns about their mental health.
On January 4, 2021, a police officer in Garissa shot and killed himself. This happened just a few hours after a prison warder in Mwea, Kirinyaga County, committed suicide after killing a colleague in an alleged love triangle.
The two incidents followed the January 3, 2021 murder-suicide at Kamukunji Police Station in Nairobi, where an officer killed his female colleague and injured another before taking his own life.
On August 8, 2023, a police officer attached to the Rift Valley Regional K-9 police unit headquarters in Nakuru City shot and killed his senior following an argument.
In August 2021, a police officer in Nakuru County shot and killed his girlfriend, who had been admitted to hospital after he injured her. The officer took his own life after killing the 29-year-old woman.
In June 2021, a police officer’s body was found at her parents’ home in Nyawa village in Elgeyo-Marakwet County, days after she allegedly shot and killed two men, among them a police officer in Nakuru.
In July 2022, a police officer attached to Buru Buru Police Station in Nairobi hang himself at the canteen within the station following years of depression. His family said he had turned to drinking following the death of his son in 2019.
Last year, the police service, in partnership with the Ministry of Health, established a special medical board to help assess officers’ wellness, including those undergoing depression and those injured in the line of duty.
The NPS has also established the Directorate of Chaplaincy and Counselling to spearhead and coordinate professional counselling services.
