Top bosses call for changes to restore order in police force

Police commanders are calling for a review of reforms which they claim have destroyed discipline and command in the service, lowered morale and plunged the service into a corruption crisis.

Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of prosecution for breaching secrecy rules, the commanders said the service is gutted from within by corruption, tribalism, indiscipline and low morale.

“This is not the force I joined 40 years ago. In those days we had a clear hierarchical structure and the roles of every officer were clearly defined. We obeyed the law and force standing orders. Today it is like an individual’s thing,” said a top commander.

“There is total breakdown in the enforcement of discipline.”

Many top officers are understandably distressed after being demoted in the realignment which followed the abolishing of some old ranks and the creation of new ones. Some who spoke to the Nation felt that there was tribalism and favouritism in the changes and that merit and fairness were not followed.

'ENMITY'

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Grace Kaindi, interviewed by the Daily Nation’s Fred Mukinda, maintained that promotions were based on merit, though she conceded that “alleging favouritism is human nature”.

The most debilitating impact of the reforms is in the merger of the Administration and regular police and the creation of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations as a separate entity.

“What kind of enmity is this?” another commander asked in reference to the bad blood between Ms Kaindi and the Director of Criminal Investigations, Mr Ndegwa Muhoro.

According to the officer, the differences between the regular police and the DCI are denied by all but in actual fact have destroyed the cooperation between the two units.

It all boils down to a rank contest between Mr Muhoro, who is said to consider himself equal to Ms Kaindi because he is now in charge of his own unit created by the law, and Ms Kaindi who is said to privately feel that she is Mr Muhoro’s superior and that the DCI has always been subordinate to the main service.

The CID recruits from the regular police and the General Service Unit. Once recruited, officers must be released, in the case of general duty officers, by their OCPD and for the GSU, by the commandant. Whereas OCPDs have been releasing officers to join the DCI, the commander told the Daily Nation that those from the GSU are not being released.

And once released, they must be issued with uniforms and sent to Kiganjo police training college before moving over. The last time CID officers stepped into Kiganjo was more than two years ago.

“The relationship between the CID and the general duty police must be repaired urgently. It must be intimate, they must work together,” the commander said.

“We want structures that work and leadership that matters,” the commander said.