The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) is choking under a backlog of 3,600 cases, which it is unable to process due to budgetary constraints.
The bulk of the pending cases are complaints from the public against the police.
The authority told the National Assembly committee on Administration and Internal Security during scrutiny of the Authority’s 2026/2027 budget estimates that, in addition to the 3,600 pending cases, the authority also requires additional resources to conclude at least 971 cases and support over 300 ongoing court matters in the coming financial year.
The authority Deputy Director of Legal Services, Festus Kinoti, told the committee they require additional funding to accelerate investigations, support prosecutions and clear pending cases.
The authority urged lawmakers for an additional Sh1.1 billion in the 2026/27 financial year to go towards investigations, regional offices and confidential operations while undertaking their duties across the country.
In a bid to deal with the increasing cases amid limited resources, the authority Vice Chairperson Ann Wanjiku told the committee that it has so far introduced several mechanisms, including the development of an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) policy to handle minor complaints such as police inaction.
Ms Wanjiku told the committee that by December last year, the Authority had closed about 500 files where investigations found insufficient evidence to proceed.
Mr Boniface Samati, a board member at IPOA, pointed out that the authority receives thousands of complaints annually, many linked to failure by police officers to act on reports made by members of the public.
The committee raised concerns over persistent delays in investigations despite an increase in IPOA’s recurrent expenditure from Sh1.406 billion to Sh1.457 billion in the current financial year.
