As Africa heads into a new cycle of elections, countries such as South Africa and Nigeria face a familiar challenge: How do you keep elections peaceful when political actors know that violence can be an effective political strategy?
For decades, efforts to prevent election violence have focused on electoral commissions, peace messaging, and international observation. Yet one institution sits at the centre of every election crisis and too often receives insufficient attention: the police. The question is not simply whether police can stop violence, but whether they can do so while remaining impartial and without using excessive force.
Our research on Kenya’s 2022 election offers important lessons. The country is hardly an obvious success story. Kenya has a long history of election-related violence, most notoriously during the 2007–08 crisis when more than 1,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. Policing has also been shaped by authoritarian and colonial legacies. For many citizens, the police have historically been associated more with repression than protection.
Following the violence of 2007–08, Kenya embarked on a series of reforms. The 2010 Constitution and subsequent police reforms sought to improve accountability, transparency and public trust. Progress was uneven. The police remained vulnerable to political influence, corruption and excessive use of force. Yet, the reforms have gradually altered citizens’ expectations on policing in Kenya.
Kenya’s 2022 Elections
Police reformsmade the 2022 election particularly significant. The election was highly competitive. President Uhuru Kenyatta was stepping down, long-standing political alliances had fractured, and the outcome was uncertain. William Ruto and Raila Odinga led rival coalitions in a closely contested race, while several counties were identified as having a high risk of electoral violence. Many observers feared a repeat of previous unrest.
Instead, the election remained remarkably peaceful. How can we understand this outcome and the role of the police in preventing violence?
Political factors certainly mattered. With outgoing President Kenyatta supporting the opposition candidate, there was no incumbent candidate, which—despite Kenyatta backing one of the leading candidates—reduced some pressures on the electoral process. Campaign debates focused more heavily on economic issues than on ethnic grievances that had fuelled previous violence. But these factors tell only part of the story.
A crucial lesson from Kenya is that peaceful elections are not solely the product of favourable political conditions. They are actively produced through prevention.
At the national level, security planning was more coordinated than in previous elections. The Election Security Arrangement Programme brought together the electoral commission, police, and a range of other stakeholders to identify risks and coordinate responses.
Even more important were developments at the local level.
In communities with histories of election violence – including in Chemelil and informal settlements in Nakuru country that have been the focus of our research—police worked together with local leaders, community organisations, and residents to identify tensions before they escalated. Dialogue forums created channels through which concerns could be addressed early. It also helped establish rapport and familiarity between residents and individual officers.
In addition, police maintained a visible presence in potentially volatile areas, but relied more heavily on restraint and de-escalation than on coercion. The objective was not only to respond to violence when it occurred, but to prevent it from occurring in the first place. Residents in these areas reported that police visibility helped reassure them of their safety in the face of rumours and violent threats.
These experiences point to a broader insight that should matter far beyond Kenya. Election security is not simply about deploying more officers or increasing surveillance. It is fundamentally about relationships. Where communities view police as partisan or predatory, security deployments can heighten tensions. Where police are seen as more responsive, they are far better positioned to defuse conflict before it becomes violent.
Three Key Lessons for Election Security
For countries preparing for upcoming elections, three lessons stand out.
First, election security begins long before election day. Trust cannot be built during a crisis. Efforts to improve police accountability, professionalism and community engagement between elections are just as important as security plans during the campaign period.
Second, coordination matters. Electoral commissions, police, civil society organisations, community leaders and local administrators need mechanisms for sharing information and responding rapidly to emerging risks. Violence prevention works best when it is collaborative.
Third, restraint can be a source of strength. In high-risk environments, the instinct is often to demonstrate authority through force. Kenya’s experience suggests that—at least in some areas—visible policing combined with communication, mediation and de-escalation was more effective in preventing violence while preserving public confidence.
Of course, Kenya’s experience should not be romanticised. Structural problems within the police persist, and the peaceful election of 2022 does not mean that reform is complete. Yet it demonstrates that even imperfect institutions can contribute to safer elections when supported by broader reforms, strategic planning and strong local engagement.
As Africa approaches another round of consequential elections, the lesson is clear: peaceful elections do not happen by chance. They are built through institutions capable of managing political competition without allowing it to turn violent. And among those institutions, the police remain one of the most important—and most underestimated.
Keywords: Kenya, election, police, practices, peace, conflict, conflict resolution, de-escalation, mediation, communication, peaceful, non-violent
Kristine Höglundis Professor at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University (since 2015). Her work examines state-society relations, focusing on issues such as the dynamics of peace processes, local peacebuilding and transitional justice, and the relationship between democracy, law enforcement, and conflict. Geographically her ongoing research focuses on southern and eastern Africa, as well as Sweden.
Emma Elfversson is Associate Professor at the Department of Government, Uppsala University. Her research interests lie at the intersection of peace and conflict research, development studies, and comparative politics. More specifically, her ongoing and recent research concerns ethnic politics and communal violence, local conflict resolution, community policing, land rights, and urban violence. Empirically, she combines quantitative and in-depth qualitative research, with case studies focused on East Africa (in particular Kenya).
Patrick Mutahiis a Kenyan researcher working at the intersection of security, human rights, and governance, with particular expertise in policing and security-sector governance. His work combines academic research, policy engagement and practical programme development, with a strong focus on translating evidence into policy and institutional change.
