Reforms: Maraga wants top officers to face vetting panel
By Print Reporter, November 21, 2023The presentation of the taskforce report on reforms has given fresh impetus to the anticipated transformation of the National Police Service (NPS) and Kenya Prisons Service (KPS).
Nothing has excited junior officers and civil society activists more than the recommendation by the taskforce for the replacement of the current top NPS leadership with a new team that has the competence, integrity, and experience required to drive the reforms.
Late last year, President William Ruto established the National Taskforce on Police and Prisons Reforms chaired by former Chief Justice David Maraga.
In the report presented to the President last Thursday, Maraga’s team identified legal, policy, institutional and operational constraints that hinder effective delivery of service by NPS, KPS and the National Youth Service (NYS) and made recommendations to address them.
The team seeks reforms aimed at addressing challenges ranging from weak leadership, rampant corruption, rivalry between the Kenya Police Service (KPS) and Administration Police Service (APS), low salaries to poor working conditions, including housing.
If implemented, police and prison officers would have a clear career growth path and transfer policies which have previously been determined by ethnicity, nepotism, bribery and other biases.
One of the recommendations is fresh vetting of senior police officers from the rank of Senior Superintendent of Police.
“To ascertain whether the current top leadership of the NPS has the competence, integrity and experience required to drive the requisite reforms and achieve the vision of the Service, the Taskforce has recommended a fresh vetting by an independent panel to be appointed by the President for all officers of the rank of Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) and above,” the report says.
Maraga’s team wants Interior and National Administration Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki to expedite the formulation of a bill for tabling in Parliament to enact legislation to reinstate the constitutional requirement for open, transparent and competitive recruitment of the Inspector-General, the Deputy-Inspectors General and the Director of Criminal Investigations as was provided for under Sections 12, 13 and 30 of the NPS Act prior to the 2014 amendment.
Career stagnation
Whereas the 2010 Constitution had created transparent mechanisms towards the recruitment of the top police bosses, that was removed in 2014 to give the President a free hand in their appointments.
The Security Laws (Miscellaneous Amendment) Act of 2014 repealed the provisions of the NPS Act which provided for an open, transparent, and competitive recruitment of the Inspector-General and Deputy-Inspectors General.
For the first time, police and prisons officers would have a clear career progression path as well as well-regulated and stipulated promotion, transfer and deployment guidelines, issues that have caused major discontent in the two departments.
“There is a historical case of stagnation of officers at lower levels in the Service. Many junior officers begin and end their career without any form of progression or advancement,” the report states.
The task force has also called for the establishment of grades of Inspector II and I and the introduction of Constable III, II and I, and Corporal III, II and I within the same ranks, all of which must be filled through an open and competitive promotions process based on merit.
The system of police promotions, transfers and deployments is opaque, making it prone to abuse.
“The NPS lacks competent leadership with strategic vision and commitment to discharge its mandate.
Standards of professionalism and fairness on issues such as recruitment, training, promotions, transfers, deployment and general performance of policing duties have been compromised,” the report points out.
Section rivalry
As part of the measures to address complaints by junior officers over transfers and deployments, officers deployed to operational areas would be required to stay there for not more than six months.
Maraga’s team also wants officers, except those serving in specialised units, not to serve in one county for more than three years.
“It is the view of the Taskforce that a professional and motivated NPS should be based on a clear career progression and advancement path that takes into consideration factors such as competence, integrity, training and relevant qualifications, skills and experience.”
The report blames competence gaps mainly on “the manner of hiring the NPS leadership”.
And to end the friction between the Inspector-General of Police and the National Police Service Commission (NPSC), the team wants the Commission disbanded and its mandate taken over by the IG.
The taskforce accuses NPSC of usurping the powers of police bosses while failing to develop policies that would enable it deliver on its mandate.
“It has also generally been unable to develop policies and institute measures that would enable it to perform its constitutional and statutory obligations. In the circumstances, the Taskforce has been left with no option but to recommend that Government considers initiating a negotiated exit, or any other legally recognised modality, for the current Commissioners of NPSC,” states the report.
Maraga’s team has also faulted the 2018 merger of the Kenya Police Service (KPS) and APS, with the intention of addressing the rivalry between the two.
Corruption
The report says the move, in fact, left AP officers a frustrated lot as they felt that their problems were not being given due consideration by NPS leadership.
“The continued exclusive protective role of the Kenya Police Service over institutions considered “lucrative” such as the Central Bank and airports, is seen by Administration Police Service officers as an example of their disadvantage since under the reorganisation, the protection of these institutions should be part of their mandate,” the report observes.
Consequently, the taskforce wants NPS restructured in a manner that would create a clear distinction of KPS, APS and DCI only up to the inspectorate level, and thereafter all officers from the Superintendent of Police being subjected to the same training and promotional standards.
Officers from the rank of Superintendent of Police, who are not supposed to be affiliated to any particular service, like is the practice currently, would be deployed in any of the three sections.
The report also seeks to address runaway corruption and dehumanising housing conditions in KPS and overcrowding in prisons. It states that the facilities with the capacity to hold 29,000 inmates, are accommodating over 60,000, straining them beyond limit.
“In some instances, insufficient ablution and sanitation facilities force inmates to use buckets in the poorly ventilated prison dormitories. Nothing can be more dehumanizing and offensive to the inmates’ right to dignity, privacy and a clean environment,” the report says.
The report says officers in KPS and their families live in dilapidated, congested and in condemned structures.
“In some KPS stations, different families live in dormitories with each family only separated by a bedsheet curtain. Officers also live in tents or shacks that they construct for themselves. Needless to say, these conditions undermine the morale of officers in the Service and consequently affect their performance and service delivery.”