Access denied: Navigating access during ethnographic fieldwork on police reform in Kenya

Abstract

Gaining access to a particular research site and population is a key part of ethnographic fieldwork; yet, it is often unexplored or presented as a logistical, practical matter. In this chapter, I reflect on my own access trajectory to an independent police oversight body in Nairobi, Kenya, and show that access should not be equated to permission. Rather, access acts as a trajectory that is continuously negotiated throughout the research process. By exploring my own experiences, I show that research on policing, especially when including formal institutions, generally requires some measure of formal permission. In my case, this was not granted; yet, this does not entail the cessation of one’s research. Rather, it entails the use of different and often more creative avenues to understand a particular phenomenon. Combined, this chapter calls for more elaborate reflections on access to field sites and populations: by centralising our access trajectories within our analysis, we gain further insight into our research subjects, that is policing.