Sh87m spent on police hiring

A young man is assessed during police hiring at Nyamira Primary School on July 14. PHOTO | DENISH OCHIENG | FILE

What you need to know:

  • The exercise is under investigation following allegations of corruption, nepotism, tribalism and political interference.
  • The issues being investigated include allegations that senior officers received bribes of Sh100,000 and more before picking candidates to join the police force.

Nearly Sh90 million was spent in the recruitment of 10,000 officers.

The amount includes allowances to senior officers for overseeing the recruitment and payment to the Kenya National Examinations Council for authenticating academic certificates presented by candidates.

The exercise is under investigation following allegations of corruption, nepotism, tribalism and political interference.

National Police Service Commission (NPSC) chief executive officer Ojango Omumu said: “The budget was Sh87 million. Part of the cash is for verification of documents presented by applicants. All the officers who were involved were paid their dues through regional coordinators.”

Mr Omumu said the commission would not pay any charges for establishing if the applicants had clean criminal records.

Normally, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations issues a certificate of good conduct to individuals with clean records at a fee of Sh1,000.

The issues being investigated include allegations that senior officers received bribes of Sh100,000 and more before picking candidates to join the police force.

The commission launched a multi-agency audit that could lead to the cancellation of results from recruitment centres where anomalies are detected. But the Independent Policing Oversight Authority has denounced the audit, saying it was a ploy to cover up for “massive failures and corruption”.

“We have said we don’t want to be part of that investigation. We are aware they want to cancel results from just a few centres and repeat the recruitment there, just to ease public pressure. That is what we are not going to accept,” said the authority’s chairman, Mr Macharia Njeru.

He said the hiring should be nullified altogether and a fresh one conducted.

The audit team is drawn from Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, the police, the Interior ministry, NPSC, National Intelligence Service and civil society.

It is headed by NPSC commissioner Murshid Mohammed and is tasked to look into how politics, corruption, ethnicity and nepotism may have influenced recruitment, going by the complaints received.

The civilian police oversight organisation is preparing to go to court to stop the enlistment of the officers if it is not cancelled.

INCIDENTS OF BRIBERY

The nationwide recruitment was conducted on July 14.

Parliament has also asked the NPSC to postpone the admission of the recruits into training colleges until investigations into the matter are completed.

NPSC chairman Johnston Kavuludi last week admitted that “some incidents of bribery” had taken place and asked the anti-corruption agency to investigate them.

He, however, absolved the commission of blame, saying the recruitment was delegated to the police with commissioners providing an oversight role.