NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 22 – The United States Department of Justice’s International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) has trained Kenyan law enforcement officers both from the Kenya Police and the Administration Police in Nyamira on how to properly investigate and prosecute crimes of sexual violence.
Thirty-nine area officers, both male and female, were trained on the provisions in Sexual Offences Act, forms of gender-based violence, crime scene processing and evidence collection and preservation and drafting charge sheets.
The training took place at the Borabu Country Inn in Nyamira town from June 15 through 17.
The US Department of Justice worked in conjunction with Beatrice Nduta, the director of Community Policing, Gender Issues and Child Protection at police headquarters, to organise this training at the provincial level.
“Often police officers who have left the academy and are stationed at the provincial level do not get additional training on specialised subjects like sexual and gender-based violence,” explained Ms Nduta.
ICITAP plans to continue hosting these trainings in conjunction with Kenyan law enforcement at various provincial centers across the country.
Nyamira was chosen as the first site of these provincial trainings because of its relatively high incidence of sexual violence.
ICITAP has written an entire curriculum on gender-based and sexual violence investigations and has offered multiple courses based on this material for Kenyan law enforcement.
Police trainers for ICITAP have taught at both the Kenya Police College in Kiganjo and the Administration Police Training College in Embakasi.
ICITAP has made a great effort to include both agencies in all of its trainings in anticipation of the creation of the National Police Service mandated by the new constitution.
The Nyamira training was fully funded by ICITAP’s Women’s Justice and Empowerment Initiative.
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p sizset=”123″ sizcache=”10″>Source: http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/Kenyanews/US-trains-Kenyan-cops-on-sexual-violence-13302.html#ixzz1Q0aaj2ca