Man who sends shivers down cops’ spines under the spotlight

In August 2013, a bizarre discovery outside the National Police Service Commission’s headquarters in Nairobi sent a chilling warning to the man charged with reforming Kenya’s infamous police force.

A blood-soaked, severed human head, stashed in a carton box along with a pair of hands chopped off at the wrist, were accompanied by an equally eerie writing on the box: “Kavuludi – you are next!”

However, commission chairman Johnstone Kavuludi went about his work undeterred and, instead of shivering to the bone, continued to unsettle the nerves of top police officers.

“You might have heard that we had a human head and human parts deposited at our offices. That is part of the challenges,” was his reaction to the ludicrous finding.

“My logistics officer called me when I was in Mombasa once the item was discovered and I told her I have only one head and do not need another,” he played down the threat.

Since then, images of senior police officers animatedly saluting Mr Kavuludi, or shedding tears before him as they struggle to account for millions of shillings in their bank accounts, have been splashed across newspaper pages and are ubiquitous on our television screens. One officer even said that he would die if he was fired.

However, in his State of the Nation address on Thursday, President Uhuru Kenyatta said the current vetting of police officers was “slow, demoralising and had a negative impact on the overall reform agenda in the police.”

“The on-going police vetting process has taken too long and is now having a negative impact on the overall reform agenda in the police. It is leading to low morale, affecting command and control and therefore our ability to provide security.

“For these reasons, I call upon this House to reflect on a more effective way to vet in line with the objectives and spirit of the reform process.”

Mr Kavuludi, in an interview with the Lifestyle, opened up about the job and its challenges but chose not to react to the President’s remarks.

“That’s the directive from the President, which Parliament will have to assess… but I prefer to be non-committal on the remarks,” he said.

Little was known about this long-serving educationist, labour and human resource expert until he was appointed to chair the National Police Service Commission (NPSC), which is principally tasked with the unenviable task of determining the suitability of senior police officers, and cleaning up the force.

Mr Kavuludi has stared officer after officer in the eye and, with the demeanour of a seasoned teacher, assured them they needed not worry if their conscience was clear, and if they were corruption-free.

Mr Kavuludi was appointed to the NPSC in 2012 to help clean up the Service and many wonder why, without any background in police work, he was picked to police the “top cops”.

But he argues that, while teaching, he also played several roles outside his line of schooling.

“At one time I was appointed district officer, a job I did not like, and went back to teaching. I see myself more as a public sector manager. Actually, I taught for slightly less than six years but spent more time managing education, labour and industrial relations,” he explains.

“So, yes, I’m a teacher by profession but in terms of functions, I’m in public service management.”

Having scrutinised the advertisement for the commission job, and with his background, he was sure he was up to the task.

After all, they were looking for someone with a university degree, with at least 10 years’ experience, or a lawyer qualified as an advocate of the High Court of Kenya with similar experience.

Job challenges

And, voila!, the job also required a person who had been in public administration, labour relations and industrial relations, qualities that he possessed.

Since his appointment, human head threats and all, the job’s challenges have been massive.

“I’m not one of those people who like to do routine jobs. I want to get into what is challenging, what will make a difference to the sector where I find myself, or to the assignments I have been given the responsibility to manage,” he explains.

Chairing the NPSC had its massive teething problems.

“There were entrenched interests, and so if it were not for the support from former President Mwai Kibaki at that time, we probably would not be where we are,” adds Mr Kavuludi, a sharp dresser and a master of sartorial elegance. Being one of Kenya’s oldest institutions, naturally, the police service had several entrenched, historical interests. From the colonialists, who would use the police to oppress Africans, to well-heeled business people, powerful politicians and egocentric public servants, out to protect their ill-gotten gains.

Mr Kavuludi’s experience so far in helping clean up the police service and rid it of its erstwhile ugly image hasn’t been a walk in the park.

There was resistance from certain quarters in the force who had their own interests, but the chairman is confident that is now water under the bridge. Well, almost.

“Most of the challenges are disappearing slowly, but not too easily because certain groups of officers have felt that part of their authority has been taken up by the commission,” he observes.

“The work of a commissioner is a very sensitive one, which comes with a lot of enmity. But take it as any normal job that one could do and I do not feel threatened at all, for I am a risk taker.”

Lack of adequate funding, staff and offices have also slowed down the commission’s work.

“The government has graciously agreed to fund us, but it is a slow process and, right now, the offices we have rented are in the process of being partitioned.

“Very senior officers are sharing office space, but we think that is not too serious an issue to stop us from working.”

Office space and teething problems aside, the commission chairman’s dress code always stands out.

His interestingly coloured, well-cut designer suits that neatly match rare coloured shirts and ties can hardly go unnoticed in the heat of his numerous vetting sessions or media conferences.

“My father was a professional tailor,” he lets out the secret to his sartorial elegance.

“He made good clothes and, in fact, up to now, my father dresses better than I do!”

Mzee Jamine Kavuludi Misigo, now 93, a Jeans School, Maseno and Kabete tailoring alumnus, dressed his children impeccably in their youth, and they would, as though returning the favour, help him tailor clients’ shirts and trousers.

“Part of my responsibility, whenever I was not in school, was to go and help him do the basic things on shirts, trousers, dresses and so on ordered by customers,” recalls Mr Kavuludi whose wife is also an educationist.

It made him acquire taste in good clothing, and the ability to differentiate between good and bad fabric.

Mr Kavuludi hasn’t lost his tailoring touch, designing some of his clothes besides settling for designer suits from leading fashion houses, including the famous Savile Row of  London.

“I believe in one thing: Dress well, match (outfits) them properly, or if you want them to be broken, give a good blend. That’s it,” he advises, deflecting my question on what’s the most he’s ever spent on a suit.

Quality is expensive

“Anything quality is always expensive,” he cleverly ducks the question.

Whenever he is not at work, Mr Kavuludi dresses casually, though many people would not have the opportunity to meet him because of his hectic schedule.

Mr Kavuludi has lots of time for family, when not on the vetting panel or in his office and, as a farmer, regularly visits his Vihiga home to follow up on activities on his farm where he grows tea, sugarcane and maize.

The teetotaller bad cop buster also loves reading, spends some time in the gym and has a passion for travel.

Unlike many people from western Kenya, football is hardly Mr Kavuludi’s sport as he enjoys badminton and tennis instead.

Again, unlike his villagemates, chicken is not the delicacy of choice. He simply loves his githeri — boiled maize and beans.

And, yes, he loves his steaming cup of tea.

His power to swat away top, incompetent and sleazy police officers has made the chairman a lonely man.

A couple of bodyguards provide him security every inch of the way after the severed head incident.

“You see, I have to watch my back,” he said of his security detail.

Indeed, he can no longer freely walk into a supermarket alone and shop, or even sit on a hotel balcony without an armed guard.

“I have security everywhere I go. Unfortunately, I can’t go do some window shopping the way I used to. There are some friends who may want to come and sit with me but, by the virtue of being chairman of the NPSC, they grow cold feet and sometimes I find myself very lonely.”

This week, Mr Kavuludi heads to Kisumu after a bruising schedule in Eldoret and Kakamega in the last fortnight.

The Kavuludi team will then head to North Eastern before winding up their vetting mission in Nairobi.

His parting shot? “I look forward to the day when the police service will be the most respected among public service institutions in Kenya.”

Long walk: Tailor’s son whose story is that of grass to grace

A man from a humble upbringing, Mr Johnstone Kavuludi was born on December 10, 1952, and grew up in Senende village of Vihiga County, schooling at Senende primary and secondary schools.

He sat his Cambridge Certificate Examination in 1970, emerging as the top student and earning a call-up to the University of Nairobi for a degree in education after completing his ‘A’ levels at Kakamega High School.

“I was employed as a high school teacher and I taught in a number of secondary schools in Western Kenya among them Malava Boys’ High School, Sigalagala Technical High School and Kaimosi Teachers’ College,” Mr Kavuludi told Lifestyle in Kakamega last week.

The father of two, aged 30 and 31, and a grandfather of many, was appointed an education officer in the then Ministry of Higher Education before proceeding to the United Kingdom for a post-graduate degree in education, administration and management.

His impressive alma mater list includes the University of Leeds (post-graduate in education and administration management), International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation, Turin (higher diploma in international labour standards), Witwatersrand Business School, South Africa (post-graduate in management) and the National University of Singapore (strategic management).

Upon his return to Kenya, he was appointed deputy provincial education officer in Nyanza, an appointment that opened more doors.

His hard work paid off as he was transferred to the Ministry of Education’s headquarters where he served as deputy director of education and senior deputy director of education.

He also served as director of Kenya Staff Institute, which was based at Kenyatta University.

In 2000, he was transferred to the Ministry of Labour as the director of man power, planning and development.

A year later, he was appointed Commissioner of Labour, a position he held until he retired from the public service.

However, due to his experience, he landed assignments, serving as Kenya’s representative to the International Labour Organisation’s main committee.

As Labour Commissioner, he coordinated Africa region members of the technical staff at the ILO and the African Union Labour and Social Affairs Commission.

“I was the chairman of the Credentials Committee of the International Labour Organisation and represented Kenya at the International Labour Organisation Training Institute in Turin, Italy, among many other government assignments,” he says.

Mr Kavuludi also consulted at ‘Furukombe Initiatives’, a firm he started with friends to carry out capacity building, human resource management and public policy, specialising in strategic management and planning for various institutions.