Piara Singh Kenth

Warrant Number: 160512

Date of joining: 21st July 1969

Piara Singh Kenth was born in 1939 in Nairobi, Kenya. He is the eldest child of four brothers and six sisters. His family are originally from Ludhiana, Punjab, India before settling in Kenya in the early part of the 20th Century. His father was a civil servant in the Kenyan government whilst his mother was a devoted housewife. Kenya during this period was under British rule and the Kenth family were all British subjects.

• You can read Gurpal Virdi’s history of the Turban in the Met here.

Piara after completing his education worked as a clerk before joining the Kenyan Police on 12th August 1960. He joined as an Assistant Inspector, completed his police training at Kiganjo Police College before being posted to Kingsways police station. In 1963 he was confirmed and promoted to substantive rank of Inspector. His duties included general police duties, criminal investigations, administration and a posting to the North East Frontier as Temporary Chief Inspector. It was here that he was awarded the Northern Frontier campaign medal for his police operations against the ‘Shiftas’ Somali guerrillas. In fact throughout his service with the Kenyan police, Piara received several commendations for his dedicated police work on and off duty.

Police Inspector Piara Singh Kenth (Kenyan Police), 1969

During this period in his busy schedule he married Harbans Kaur, they had three children. In the 1960s Kenya got its independence from Britain and the population was being Africanised. Some chose to remain British whilst others took up Kenyan citizenship. Piara being British was not allowed to be promoted to substantive Chief Inspector as he did not want to become Africanised which was part of the condition for promotion.

In 1968 whilst visiting his family in England, Piara saw an advertisement for Metropolitan police recruitment in the national press. He applied for it and was successful. He recalls a question being asked by the senior board member: ‘You are an Inspector with the Kenyan police, will you be able to cope as a constable in the Metropolitan Police?’ He replied: ‘Yes, no problem.’ There was no direct transfer available at the time.

Piara returned to Kenya and handed in his resignation notice. On 21st July 1969, Piara Singh Kenth joined the Metropolitan Police. He was also making history as the first Asian Sikh officer to join. The media were keen to interview and photograph him.

After successfully completing his training at Hendon, Piara was posted to Southall police station because of his linguistic skills. However, senior officers decided that he should do his probationary period at Ealing police station as posting at Southall would mean that he would constantly be used as an interpreter for the Indian community in Southall.

In October 1969 he was called to New Scotland Yard for pre-arranged publicity hype by the Met where he was filmed, photographed but no interviews by the media. The reason for the no interviews was because, according to some, he spoke: ‘Popadum English’.

Police Constable Piara Singh Kenth outside New Scotland Yard, 1969

Being an experienced policeman Piara had no problems settling in with his team although he did encounter hostility and ostracisation from other teams. Piara enjoyed his work. One morning soon after the national publicity he was stopped after getting out of his car to go to Ealing police station to report for duty by an over zealous sergeant from another team who asked him for his driving documents. Piara was in possession of an international licence and British provisional licence whilst waiting to take his British driving test. The sergeant decides to report him for no ‘L’ plates and driving unaccompanied with a provisional licence. Amazingly this incident was leaked to the press within a couple of days. Luckily, the Met saw some sense and No Further Action was taken against Piara. In any event he had passed his test within a few days from being reported.

Because of his previous skills in the Kenyan police, Piara, was soon involved in several serious criminal investigations as an investigator. After his probation, he was appointed as Temporary Detective Constable at Southall police station on the Southall Immigration Squad. The CID way of life meant longer hours and he was seeing less of his family. This posting also meant hostility from the Asian community. During this period Piara and his team received several commendations from senior Crown court judges and the Met were compelled to recognise his work. Things were not going as smooth as he thought as Piara suspected something was not right. He felt that he himself was under surveillance, his office, his phone and his car were bugged. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw bugging equipment strapped on a colleague. He was also denied a posting on the Gurdip Singh Chaggar racist murder investigation.

On 19th October 1976, Piara Singh Kenth was called into the Commander’s office and suspended from duty. His warrant card was taken from him. He was interviewed on several occasions and on 6th June 1978 he was charged with: (i) impeding the prosecution of a man; and (ii) attempting to obstruct justice.

Whilst suspended Piara felt the isolation, his colleagues had ostracised him. He was on his own. His family was going through a very stressful period. No one was listening to him despite him protesting his innocence. During this period Piara suffered a heart attack but survived.

In September 1979 at the Inner London crown court after the prosecution had presented its case, Judge Kenneth Rubin, dismissed the case against Piara Singh Kenth, saying that there was no case to answer. He immediately ordered the jury to find Piara Singh Kenth ‘Not Guilty’ on the charges. Yet, no police officer was held to account.

The three-year nightmare had at last come to an end for Piara and his family. He swore never to return to the Metropolitan Police, the ordeal had left a bitter mark on the family. After the trial he said to the local paper, Midweek Gazette: ‘During those three years the police officers ignored me. It was like I had leprosy. I swear never to join the British police force again. The stigma of being charged, although I have been honourably cleared, will stick with me for the rest of my life. I can never forgive the police force for what it has put me and my family through. I gave all I could during my years with the Met and this is how it has repaid me.’

Piara Singh Kenth then put in his resignation. The emerging Asian community did not support him because many did not appreciate the fact that his was just doing his duty but saw him as the enemy. During the 1960s and to the present time many in the minority communities saw and still see the police as the enemy. In late December he received a certificate of service signed by Assistant Commissioner. Piara officially resigned from the Met on 9th December 1979.

After leaving the Metropolitan police Piara and his family decided to make a fresh start by applying to become citizens of Canada their applications were accepted but his children did not want to migrate. Piara then took on new job with Thames Trains were he served for 20 happy years.

Piara Singh Kenth reflected back he said: ‘I had fun but in the end things soured. I became so disillusioned by what they (the Met) had done to me.’

Piara created history by becoming the first Asian Sikh policeman but a lot of what he went through by breaking barriers will never be fully appreciated by anybody other than his immediate family. He is a pioneer and the Asian community needs to recognise that.

Piara Singh Kenth in 2010

Looking back at the Met in 1972, Sir Robert Mark said he had ‘never experienced… blindness, arrogance and prejudice on anything like the scale accepted as routine in the Met’. Lord Scarman’s report in 1981, stated ‘institutional racism‘” did not exist, but positive discrimination to tackle racial disadvantage was ‘a price worth paying’.

Sir William MacPherson’s report, in 1999, stated that the Met was ‘institutionally racist’. Sir Bill Morris’s report in 2004, stated: ‘We are nonetheless extremely concerned by the lack of direct accountability at senior levels within the organisation; it appears to us that there is no sanction for getting it badly wrong irrespective of the consequences to the organisation or to those on the receiving end.’

Baroness Nuala O’Loan, in 2021, found that the Metropolitan Police were ‘institutionally corrupt’ in its handling of the investigation into the murder of Daniel Morgan and that the force had placed protecting its reputation above the investigation.

Baroness Louise Casey’s landmark report shows that nothing has changed. It refutes Cressida Dick’s suggestion that problems were limited to a few bad apples. The rot goes all the way through. Findings that the Met is institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic echo those in the 1999 Macpherson report.

It is obvious that the Met has not learnt any lessons from serious groundbreaking reports and failed to follow up recommendations. Successive governments have also failed in their duty to oversee changed. Racism still goes on as Sir Mark Rowley, despite the Casey report labelling the force institutionally racist, earlier this year stated: ‘The Metropolitan police will not be looking at racism in its plans to root out rogue officers.’

I like many other good officers joined the police to serve the public but when there are more crooks within the police service than we catch, it is very disheartening because good officers like Piara Kenth are forced to leave.