Oversight board to ask court to bar enlistment of police recruits

What you need to know:

  • The National Police Service Commission chairman Johnstone Kavuludi last week admitted “some incidents of bribery” had happened and asked the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate them.
  • EACC chairman Mumo Matemu told the Sunday Nation: “We are not going to take any action until we have received the report of the working group. They have seven days to do the work and definitely anybody found culpable will be brought to justice.”

The civilian police oversight body is preparing to go to court and stop enlistment of 10,000 fresh officers, saying the recruitment conducted two weeks ago was flawed and should be cancelled.
The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) chairman Macharia Njeru told the Sunday Nation that his officers had been receiving at least 70 complaints from the public every day reporting claims of corruption since the countrywide recruitment on July 14.

“We are convinced the whole exercise was marred by corruption and should be cancelled and repeated. If that does not happen, our lawyers are preparing to go to court and stop it,” he said.

Mr Njeru added: “Look at the insecurity in the country today, then we go ahead and have people who bribed their way becoming police officers. It means we shall be employing people who most probably will not be dedicated in law enforcement.”

The National Police Service Commission chairman Johnstone Kavuludi last week admitted “some incidents of bribery” had happened and asked the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate them.

However, he absolved the commission from blame, saying it was only providing an oversight role as police officers were in charge.

“The exercise was delegated to police commanders in the sub-counties and counties and the officers were in charge of recruiting teams. We have received their reports from the field and they will be scrutinised,” said Mr Kavuludi. 

The recruitment was conducted in 289 centres, a representation of former administration districts which are today known as sub-counties.

Heads of police in the districts, usually known as Officer in Charge of Police Division (OCPD), were placed in charge of the recruitment in their areas of jurisdiction.
The officers were overseen by the police County Commander who in turn reported to the Kavuludi-led commission.

But unlike in the past where the senior officers were informed of the roles only a few days before the recruitment and posted to areas they were not familiar with, matters were done differently this time round.

The OCPDs were told to take charge in their areas well before the recruitment, which many thought allowed for canvassing.

Mr Njeru said: “The recruitment went on up to 2 a.m. in some areas. What kind of recruitment is that? It must be cancelled altogether and we conduct a fresh one.”
Mr Kavuludi assured the public that the commission was taking a collaborative approach for a comprehensive audit of the complaints received.

“We will not hesitate to take stern action on anybody found culpable and, where necessary, such action shall include nullification of the exercise at the affected areas,” he said.

Four days after the exercise, Mr Kavuludi delivered a clean bill of health before later accepting there were some irregularities after receiving complaints from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).

Mr Kavuludi summoned commissioners and senior officials to a meeting with EACC chairman Mumo Matemu last week in which they formed a committee to conduct investigations. 
The team drawn from EACC, the police, the Interior ministry, NPSC, National Intelligence Service and civil society was given seven days to complete its work.

The investigators headed by NPSC Commissioner Murshid Mohammed were tasked to look into how politics, corruption, ethnicity and nepotism may have influenced recruitment, going by the nature of complaints received.

NPSC invited the public to give feedback on the recruitment and has since received 350 reports including complaints and commendations.

“In the majority of the cases, the exercise went on well. We have very few cases where they give information we consider useful to conduct further investigations,” Mr Kavuludi said.

In some claims, recruiting officers took bribes from candidates, others say the officials selected their relatives while other candidates felt “uncomfortable when they saw and felt politicians influenced choice of certain candidates.”

There were also allegations that recruiting officers gave an upper hand to applicants from “certain communities.”

Brought to justice
EACC chairman Mumo Matemu told the Sunday Nation: “We are not going to take any action until we have received the report of the working group. They have seven days to do the work and definitely anybody found culpable will be brought to justice.”

 IPOA and Consumer Federation of Kenya are among other institutions that have claimed the recruitment was tainted by corruption.

Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter also said the exercise was “marred by corruption”.

Thousands of young Kenyans turned up for the recruitment and 10,000 were selected.

They were issued with docket numbers, a document showing they were deemed eligible after undergoing rigorous tests. But they will have to await confirmation before the training starts in October. Their details will now be forwarded to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations for scrutiny.