New tough rules in recruiting officers

Police have introduced stringent new regulations that will go into effect in a national recruitment exercise scheduled for next month, Sunday Nation has learnt.

Among other requirements, aspirants will have to have received a mark higher than the current mean grade D on the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).

The joint Kenya Police and Administration Police recruitment exercise will be advertised next week after a week-long meeting during which the new regulations were discussed and drafted by senior officers from both departments and officials of the Police Reforms Implementation Committee (PRIC).

The recruitment is intended to supplement the police population ahead of the 2012 General Election during which security agencies anticipate an upsurge in criminal activity.

There are concerns within the police force that the present countrywide demand for police officers cannot be met. The recruits are expected to undergo fifteen months of training and to graduate in time to be deployed by August 2012.

Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe confirmed plans to conduct the recruitment exercise early next month but said a team was still working out the finer details of the exercise.

“We intend to conduct a recruitment exercise for police officers soon. The announcement will be made next week for the exercise that will take place on the same day,” Mr Kiraithe said.

The exercise is expected to address the police-to-population ratio deficit resulting from a moratorium that stopped police recruiting for the last three years.

According to sources privy to the discussions, the government intends to conduct the countrywide recruitment exercise over one day to prevent aspirants from applying at several centres and to thwart bribery.

“We hope that the new regulations which will be used in the recruitment scheduled to be conducted soon will reduce the prospect of bribery because no single recruiting officer will be in a position to take a bribe and assure someone that they will be picked,” Mr Kiraithe said.

An equal number of recruits will be selected from the country’s administrative districts, and their names will be entered into a computer program for a national tally.

Police already have a programme to ensure that recruitment adheres to regional balance requirements.

A total of 18,000 recruits will then be selected countrywide and their names processed to establish a final list of 7,000 recruits.

The computer-selected recruits will then be separated into three groups and trained at the Kenya Police College, Kiganjo, the General Service Training college, Embakasi, and the Administration Police Training College, Embakasi.

Senior police officers have already drafted a new training syllabus.

In its recommendations, the National Task Force on Police Reforms chaired by retired Justice Philip Ransley placed a moratorium on police recruitment to allow for reforms to be introduced in the force.

The recruitment exercise will take place at the same time senior police officers are undergoing scrutiny to weed out unqualified personnel in a rationalisation process recommended by the Ransley team.