Work

Effect of Police Officer’s Workload on Occupational Safety & Health in Nairobi City County, Kenya

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: According to police records, 3,127 officers in Kenya have been injured from 2014 to 2021 while performing their duties. During the same period, 538 of them have also died. Police officers perform many tasks and their heavy workload has exposed them to many risks and dangers as they secure the country. Some of them have lost their lives at the course of performing their duties caused by terrorists, cattle rustlers, other criminals and others kill themselves or fellow officers due to stress. The tasks and risks police officers face motivated this study. The particular goal of one of the study's factors was to determine whether the level of workload affects the occupational safety and health of police officers. Four thousand police officers from various ranks of the Kenyan disciplined forces were the subjects of the study in Nairobi City County. For security, an approximate number of 4,000 police officers were studied as provided by a senior police officer. A sample of 200 police personnel from 33 police stations was selected for the study through random sampling. This sample represented 5% of the 4,000 police officers that were the target group. The 5% was chosen as recommended by scholars. The study was carried out by distributing questionnaires to the sample chosen through the station commanders after explaining to them the purpose of the study, gaining their trust that it was going to be carried out in confidence without mentioning any names. The study was carried out after getting a permit from NACOSTI and being approved by National Police Service. This study involves: Human subjects who are human (police officers in Nairobi, Kenya), perceptions were collected which are personal in nature, issues on levels of stress, and concerns on officers’ safety, questionnaires were used and data on matters that are personal, very sensitive topics on mental health, stress, suicidal thoughts or suicide itself, and fatalities which occur in workplaces. Based on these, such research must be ethically reviewed to ensure: Informed consent was obtained, confidentiality and anonymity of participants or respondents, no coercion or harm to the participants, proper data handling and storage. This is despite that station commanders had been approached before carrying out the study, even NACOSTI and National Police Service who had given out permits and approvals. Based on the sensitivity of the study and chain of command of NPS, approvals/authorization were received as follows: Request letter to DIG dated 25th March 2018, approval from DIG on 4th April 2018, permit (NACOSTI/P/19/41736/28313) on 21st February 2019, approval Nairobi County Commissioner on 27th February 2019, Ministry of Education on 27th February 2019, DIG to Regional Police Commander(RPC) on 8th April 2019, RPC to Sub-CountyPolice Commander (SCPC) on 15th April 2019, RPC to OCPDs on 20th August 2019. These permits or authorizations do not replace formal ethical review and clearance. The study's response rate, which was 75.5%, was satisfactory. According to the study's findings, 46.4% of respondents thought their workload as police officers was excessive. It had a 3.27 mean and a 1.06 standard deviation. The findings of the correlation analysis revealed that there was a negative and significant association between Work Load and Occupational, Safety and Health of Police Officers (r=-0.577, P-value=0.000). In addition, the regression analysis results indicated that that there was a negative and significant relationship between workload and Occupational, Safety and Health of Police Officers in Kenya (β=-0.295, p=0.000). The findings pointed out that a unit change in workload to the Police officers results into a negative change in occupational, safety and health of Police officers in Kenya by 0.295 units. Analysis of regression revealed a coefficient of determination R square of .333 and r of .577 and .000 level of significance. It meant 33.3% of OSH of police officers is influenced by workload.

Source: Journal of Agriculture Science and Technology

DOI: 10.4314/jagst.v24i3.5

Authors: Solomon Chepsongol Kelwon, Romanus Odhiambo Otieno, Susan Were, Pamela Marendi Getuno

Institutions: Kabarak University, Meru University of Science and Technology, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology

Language: English

Topic: Occupational Health and Performance

Subfield: Occupational Therapy

Field: Health Professions

Domain: Health Sciences

SDGs: Good health and well-being, Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Decent work and economic growth

Open Access status: diamond

Funder: National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation