The security agencies needed to upscale their level of preparedness in delivering a peaceful and secure environment for the conduct of the 2022 general elections especially in areas that had been flagged as hotspots of violence. Our programme supported training of over 1,000 police officers drawn from across the country on election security and public order management. The trainings allowed the National Police Service directorate of operations to review the operational strategies on election security with all respective sub county police commanders drawn from all the NPS units. The outcomes of the trainings reflected quite visibly especially in the approaches employed by the police in diffusing potential triggers of violence at various events; political rallies, the voting day and during the tallying and results announcement phases. The police demonstrated very swift and tactical responses to incidences. There was proper deployment at polling stations and tallying centres that also contributed to swift diffusion of violent triggers.

At the community level, Nakuru county has been one of the counties on the spotlight following bouts of politically instigated violence every election period, most notably, the 2007 post-election violence where the county accounted for nearly 20% of all PEV linked fatalities countrywide. The 2022 election was not going to be different as the National Cohesion and Integration Commission NCIC had already ranked Nakuru as the second most highly likely county to bear the brunt of a significant scale of election violence, with Njoro sub county mapped as one of the epicentres for the violence. A cross section of stakeholders mainly drawn from the peace and security space and led by the County Security Intelligence Committee, convened the Nakuru County multi-sectoral co-ordination and collaboration forum on election preparedness chaired by the County Commissioner. The Forum brought on board respective Sub County Security Intelligence Committee representatives, Chiefs, Elders, community leaders, Nyumba kumi leaders, political aspirants, religious leaders, and members of the public. This forum which encouraged regular consultations, collaboration, and coordination in the run-up to the general election, as well as encouraging information sharing for early warning and early response among relevant stakeholders. The regular consultations played a key role in analyzing safety and security issues and deploying appropriate interventions to manage emerging challenges each Sub County. Some of the interventions deployed by the team included securing commitments to peaceful conduct by political candidates, utilizing the early warning and response approach to detect and diffuse potential security threats among others.

For the first time, Kenya recorded zero deaths as a result of police action during the General Elections as security situation was considerably good throughout the period compared to similar period in 2017 election where there were fatalities resulting from police conduct. The peaceful outcomes was testament that investment in police reforms has tangible results.