Abstract:
The Administration Police (AP) force in Kenya is one of the country’s national security organs charged with preservation of public peace. Since 2008, and for some time now, this unit has been in the limelight for the increased number of fatal incidents and professional errors by its personnel. The demand in terms of workload and work patterns, level of participation in decision making, resources availed for performance and relationships between juniors and their superiors more often act as stress triggers. The main objective of this study was to establish the effects of work related stress on the performance of the Administration Police service in Narok County. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. Data was collected using structured questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics including frequency distribution tables, means, mode, ranking and percentages. Pearson’s correlation coefficient(r) was used to determine the direction and strength of associations between variables while the Chi Square test was used to show significance of variables. The study found that gender, academic qualification, marital status of the officers, working units, rank and number of years in service were significant predictors of work-related stress (p<0.05) at 95% confidence interval. Further, 43.5%, 23.5% and 27.1% reported dissatisfaction with salary, carrying extra responsibilities and ‘perfectionist needs’ in duty execution respectively as the three main sources of work-related stress. The study concluded that causes of work related stress are in the known spheres and addressing them may only involve interventions that have to address the root causes of and coping strategies. The study also concluded that effects of work related stress are evident among AP personnel and more urgent measures need to be put in place to address them. The study recommends that organizational structure and command need to be reviewed to make work environment stress free. Further, enhancement of coping strategies with work related stress among the AP officers, creation of a commission to handle work related stress in the police force, and improvement of staff welfare and comfort need to be considered. The study suggests for further research into effective coping mechanisms for work related stress on law enforcement officers in the Country
