EDITORIAL: Deaths during police, military training call for independent, transparent investigations

Last week, a 23-year-old police recruit died at the National Police Service training campus in Kiganjo.

This brings to four the number of training-related deaths since recruits joined the police and military colleges in December 2025. Earlier incidents include the deaths of three trainees at the Defence Forces Recruits Training School in Eldoret. Official statements have depicted these deaths as happening during ‘routine’ exercises.

Deaths during training are not normal, not acceptable and not inevitable. While police and military training is physically and mentally demanding by design, it should be safe, medically supervised and free of abuse and punitive drills.

Globally, professional police and military institutions operate under clear safety protocols. These include medical checks, hydration breaks, limits on physical punishment and immediate emergency care. Deaths during training are treated as serious red flags, not collateral damage. Any system that accepts death as a “risk of training” has failed in its duty of care.

But in Kenya, the causes of such deaths are always hidden behind official statements. That must end. The public has a right to know what is happening inside our training institutions and why so many young men are dying before their careers even begin.

We call for independent, transparent investigations into each death. That includes publishing findings, identifying systemic failures, and holding to account those responsible for abuse and unsafe training practices. The nation deserves assurances that its defenders are prepared without being put at undue risk.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I have never seen a situation so dismal that a policeman couldn’t make it worse.” —Irish author and poet Brendan Behan was born on February 9, 1923