Ipoa seeks extra Sh356m to set up county offices

The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (Ipoa) requires an additional Sh356 million to set up offices in various counties.

Ipoa says it is necessary to bring services closer to the public, citing the growing number of public complaints against the police, thus the need to set up offices in the devolved units.

The police oversight body says it would require Sh203 million in its first phase of setting up five “cluster” offices — an office serving a number of counties — for better oversight and accountability in the police service.

Another Sh153 million would be required in phase two of setting up four other offices.

Should Parliament agree to allocate more funds to Ipoa, the authority’s budgetary allocation would escalate to Sh650 million during the first year of implementing the plan.

The amount would rise to Sh800 million during the second year and an average of Sh850 million in subsequent years.

The authority’s budget was increased from Sh205 million to Sh419 million in the 2015/2016 budget.

In the bid for decentralisation, the authority says an additional 127 employees would be hired to man the offices.

CLUSTER OFFICES

The cluster offices would be set up in Wajir, Mombasa, Lodwar, Kisumu, Eldoret, Kisii, Meru, Nakuru and Sagana and will serve members of the public from neighbouring counties.

“These clusters are only for operational purposes and service delivery as per the authority’s mandate.

"Essentially, the authority has no borders of operations across the country,” said Mr Stephen Musau, who is in charge of inspections and monitoring.

“Currently, the capacity to implement the authority’s oversight mandate is adversely affected by scarcity of financial and human resource,” added Mr Musau.

Speaking on Monday at a Nairobi hotel at a consultative forum to discuss the decentralisation proposal, Mr Musau said the authority would also use the money to purchase 10 vehicles, as well run other affairs in the cluster offices.

He said complaints against the police had been increasing — from 594 in 2012 to the current 1,792.

The highest proportion of complaints (37 per cent) was received from Nairobi County while 66 per cent of counties registered less than 1 per cent of the complaints.

Mr Musau attributed the small number of complaints from counties to inaccessibility of Ipoa services, adding that setting up more offices would help.

INVESTIGATIONS

Of the 1,792 complaints lodged, 911 cases were subjected to investigations while another 540 cases are yet to be investigated.

Another 240 cases are under investigations while 21 cases out of the 141 that Ipoa has completed have been recommended to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for prosecution.

“About 52 per cent of completed investigations originated from Nairobi County which could be attributed to proximity to Ipoa services,” explained Mr Musau.

During the forum, stakeholders also asked the National Police Service to fund the setting up of County Policing Authority offices.