#031 Healing the uniform | Gitahi Kanyeki & Bonface Beti

One Step Forward

Gitahi Kanyeki is a 36-year veteran of the Kenya National Police Service. His career spans operations against cattle rustlers in Turkana, to extraordinary violence in Nairobi after the 2008 elections, to internal action against serious misconduct. That history has entailed more than anyone’s fair share of traumatic experiences, both for him and for his family. In this episode we talk about what that was like to live and work through — and beyond that what can be done, and is being done, for trauma recovery within an institution like the NPS. Our first half is with Gitahi himself, and in the second half we switch perspective to Bonface Beti. He's a program manager with the Green String Network, and he talks very eloquently about design and delivery. He also speaks to the challenges of supporting an institution that is often maligned, within Kenya, and often with good cause. (Our previous episode, 030, was on this very topic.) Taken as a whole this is a reflection on the personal costs and the rewards of service within an institution that is indisputably necessary, while also indisputably flawed.