Major reshuffle of police officers is on the cards

Kenya Police is scheduled to announce a major reshuffle within the force in a move to reorganise itself ahead of the 2012 General Election.

The police has been deliberating on a scheduled enlisting of 7,000 police officers to fill in the deficit caused by a three-year moratorium on recruitment as recommended by the National Task Force on Police Reforms.

A large number of senior police officers from the rank of Superintendent of Police are scheduled to be promoted and others moved in one of the major reshuffles seen in the police force in recent past.

Some senior officers at Vigilance House and others at the CID headquarters are expected to be moved this week.

The announcement will be made following last week’s high-level deliberations between Vigilance House and senior officials in the Ministry of Internal Security based at the Office of the President.

By Saturday afternoon, the list of those promoted or moved was awaiting Commissioner of Police Mathew Iteere’s signature.

The highest police decision-making group referred to as Board One, which sat last Thursday and Friday, had been perusing through individual officers’ files to assess candidates’ suitability for promotion and deployment to other sections.

Board One, which is chaired by the Commissioner of Police, is made up of his deputy Francis Okonya, Kenya Police College Commandant Peter Kavila, General Service Unit Commandant William Saiya, Director of Criminal Investigations Department Ndegwa Muhoro and Director of Personnel Charlton Muriithi.

The team deliberated on the promotions the whole of Friday until about 6 p.m. when the Commissioner of Police went to the Office of the President for consultation and returned at 8:30 p.m. to continue with the meeting.

Mr Iteere then left the meeting at 10 p.m.

The deputy Police spokesman, Mr Charles Owino Wahong’o, on Saturday confirmed that there was a meeting of senior police officers at Vigilance House but said that no list of transfers and promotions had been released yet.

“Board One has been meeting but no promotions or reshuffle has been announced yet,” Mr Wahong’o said.

The meeting by the board comes two weeks after another meeting that was deliberating on the long-awaited recruitment of police officers ahead of the General Election.

The Justice Philip Ransley-led National Task Force on Police Reforms had recommended the re-evaluation of job suitability for all senior police officers from the rank of Superintendent of Police.

Two weeks ago, senior CID officers were given a 16-hour ultimatum to present their certificates to Vigilance House as part of an appraisal exercise.