CID now seeks to be autonomous
What you need to know:
- If accepted, senior officers’ proposal could see efficient and vibrant department
The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) will be transformed into a semi-autonomous outfit with its own budget voted on by Parliament if a proposal handed to the National Task Force on Police Reforms is accepted.
The proposal, one of many drafted by senior police officers and handed to Police Commissioner Major-General Hussein Ali and the task force, wants the CID to be designated a charter from which it will derive semi-autonomous powers to operate independently.
It also recommends that its name be changed from the Criminal Investigations Department to the National Bureau of Investigations.
Independent outfit
If adopted, the draft could drastically transform the CID into an independent outfit along the lines of the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The draft, which has also been forwarded to the Justice Philip Ransley-led task force, suggests that the National Bureau of Investigations receive its funding directly from Treasury to avoid frustrations in their operations.
“Taking cognisant of the need for vibrant, robust, vigilant and responsive national crime investigators, the government must transform the CID into a modern detective outfit that is capable of meeting the challenges of modern crimes and its perpetrators,” the document, which the Sunday Nation has seen, says in part.
The document proposes the re-interviewing of all CID officers from the rank of Acting Superintendent of Police to get rid of non-performers and improve efficiency.
The draft document also emphasises the need to consider the level of education and professional qualification when promoting officers or reviewing their salaries.
The draft proposes that the new outfit be led by a director and a deputy. They would be assisted by six executive assistant directors in charge of investigations, operations, science and technology, information services, human resource and legal affairs.
The executive assistant director of investigations would be in charge of counter-terrorism, counter-intelligence, cyber crime and criminal investigation units.
Forensic laboratory
The executive assistant director of science and technology would be in charge of the forensic laboratory, among other things.
Recommendations made to the Ransley team on police reforms propose security of tenure for the Inspector General of Police who would head a new force for a period not exceeding five years, and the transformation of the Kenya Police Training College into a National Police University offering degrees in law, police science, criminology and public administration.
