The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has come under heavy criticism after posting a “Happy Customer Service Week” message on its official social media pages.
While the global event is typically celebrated to recognize excellence in service delivery, many Kenyans found the DCI’s post insensitive and tone-deaf, given ongoing public outrage over alleged abductions, enforced disappearances, and police brutality.
Kenyans React Angrily Online
Within hours of the post going live, Kenyans flooded the DCI’s social media pages with sarcastic comments, memes, and photos of victims of alleged police misconduct.
The backlash was so intense that the agency disabled comments on the post across all its platforms.
“You can’t celebrate customer service when citizens are being abducted,” one user wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Another sarcastically commented, “We didn’t know enforced disappearances were part of your customer service.”
Widening Distrust in Law Enforcement
The uproar reflects the growing public mistrust of Kenya’s security agencies, following several high-profile cases of activists and journalists being allegedly abducted or detained without due process.
Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International Kenya and Haki Africa have repeatedly called on the government to investigate these claims and hold rogue officers accountable.
Read Amnesty International Kenya’s statement on police accountability.
DCI Yet to Issue Clarification
As of Tuesday evening, the DCI had not issued any clarification or apology regarding the controversial post. Attempts by journalists to get a response from the agency went unanswered.
The Customer Service Week, observed annually in the first week of October, is meant to celebrate organizations that demonstrate exceptional commitment to client satisfaction — a theme that many Kenyans felt the DCI had failed to embody.
