Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki yesterday said security agencies will no longer be headed by people who are not serving in the agencies.

Kindiki told MPs that outsourcing heads of the National Police Service (NPS) and the Kenya Prisons Service (KPS) had demoralised officers.

When he appeared before the Committee on Equal Opportunity and National Cohesion, Kindiki said there is need to encourage career progression in security agencies to motivate the officers.

“Each agency will be headed by an officer who has risen through the ranks and no more outsourcing. This should stop,” he said.

At the moment the NPS is headed by Japheth Koome who is a career police officer as he had risen the ranks to reach Senior Assistant Inspector General of Police.

Kenya Prisons Service Commissioner General John Warioba is a retired military officer.

Kindiki said officers who have stagnated in one rank are promoted.

“We are worried when so many officers stagnate in one position for long. We have been working on this. For many years many people have been constables and the morale has gone down and this situation is the same in all our disciplined services. They deserve to be promoted.”

He added: “We are also working on succession at the top. We want to ensure that we make this very competitive.”

Regarding police recruitment slated to take place early next year, Kindiki (pictured) said they will be looking at the policies governing the exercise to see which areas can be amended to avoid the long requirements.

He was responding to a question by Nyeri Town MP Duncan Mathenge who claimed that some of the requirements were unreasonable and prevented many Kenyans from joining the service.

Kindiki tabled a document on ethnic composition of the police service which shows that members of the Kalenjin community are the majority with 5,723, followed by Kikuyu (5,335) and Kamba (3,278).

Kindiki also tabled a document on ethnic composition of the police service which shows that members of the Kalenjin community are the majority with 5,723, followed by Kikuyu (5,335) and Kamba (3,278).
The Luhya are 2,891, Luo 2,684, Kisii 2,536 and Meru 1,592.