UNDERSTANDING THE LINK BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING AND PROFESSIONAL OUTPUT IN KENYA'S NATIONAL POLICE SERVICE

Workplace conditions can sometimes be quite challenging. The National Police Service in Kenya consists of police officers who are an agent of Law Reinforcement. Mental Health challenges in the service have been on an increasing trend in the recent past. This has been attributed to work overload, long working hours, strict supervision and poor living conditions. All these leads to unnecessary high levels of stress and anxiety among the police force. The paper explores the observable mental health challenges in the National Police Service in Kenya and how this has impacted on their service delivery. The study adopted a descriptive survey with a sample of 500 police offices in the various ranks. All statistical tests were conducted at 0.05 level of significance. It has been noted that at least 20% of the police force personnel have one mental health condition that needs to be addressed. The key findings show that over 80% of the respondents indicated that they have experienced stress related challenges while 70% of the officers felt that they were being overworked by being allocated long working hours. The paper further highlights on key policy recommendations that are needed to bring sanity to the National Police Service in Kenya and realize the perceived best practice in mental health in the workplace.