The National Police Service (NPS) has suffered a major blow after lawmakers rejected the online recruitment of 10,000 officers, saying Kenya is not ready for such a drastic change.

The MPs who met senior police officers led by Inspector General Douglas Kanja, on May 27, 2025, cited poor network coverage in marginalised counties, youths lacking smartphones to connect to the Internet and a lack of electricity as issues that ought to be addressed before the shift.

According to the lawmakers, if such a move were to be undertaken, the country would need to be adequately prepared first, as going digital at the moment would lock out youths interested in police jobs.

MPs Rasso Dido (Saku), Francis Sigei (Sotik) and Protus Akujah (Loima) said Kenya is not ripe for digital listing.

Rasso, who is the vice chairman of the committee, said he would not support the proposal as pastoralist communities would be the most marginalised.

“As a person from the pastoralists group, I will not put my signature to this matter. I would like to know the jurisdiction you are borrowing from so that we can move digitally,” he said, adding that the digital pathway would be too expensive for today’s Kenya.

Akujah cited that perennial network loss in some regions should be addressed before the exercise goes digital, as such a move would amount to injustice if implemented.

“Some areas in this country don’t have internet connectivity. What happens to them? Are they completely locked out? There are also areas where, apart from connectivity, the youths do not have smartphones,” Akujah said.

Last week, the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) announced that a Police Recruitment System (PRS) that will serve as a centralised digital platform designed to transform the police recruitment process was ready for rollout.

Combating corruption

The commission’s acting chairperson Edwin Cheluget said the system will streamline every stage of recruitment from application submission, shortlisting, assessment, selection and appointment, ensuring real-time data validation, accountability and efficiency.

The rejection by the MPs came hours after the Service and the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) defended the move to go digital during the recruitment exercise scheduled to kick off next month, saying this would reduce cases of corruption and bribery.

They have further disclosed that they will deploy the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) and Kenya National Examination Commission (KNEC) to monitor how the exercise is being carried out.

Kanja, in his presentation, said that in previous recruitment exercises, the service faced cases of widespread reports of favouritism in recruitment that reduced public trust, and they were keen on addressing the issue during this year’s exercise.

He explained that the shift to digital platforms, biometric verification and electronic scoring systems will address the challenges they have faced previously, as manual processes, which had been deployed in previous exercises, were prone to manipulation and errors.

The IG explained that they are recruiting 10,000 officers because the service has not recruited for the last three years, despite losing 4569 officers since the last recruitment exercise of police constables in 2022.