“The server is always down!” Digitalised complaints systems to monitor public service (mis)conduct in Kenya

Abstract

In a broader police reform project in Kenya, numerous initiatives have been set up to enhance police accountability and transparency. To manage the nationwide complaints voiced by citizens against police officers and other state officials, several complaints referral network systems have been set up in Kenya throughout the past decade. This chapter explores a particular digital referral system, namely, the Integrated Public Complaints and Referral Mechanism (IPCRM), which is centred around managing complaints directed at state officials working in the law enforcement sector. Drawing from ethnographic material collected in Kenya during 2017–2018, it portrays the challenges faced in setting up and running this system. By doing so, it voices a critique against the growing appraisal of digital solutions in the policing domain and demonstrates how such referral systems provide insight into the everyday workings of the state bureaucracy. More specifically, rather than acting as solutions, such digital systems consolidate and reinforce existing inequalities and fragmentations within state institutions and in turn problematise oversight efforts.