Members of the association are set to be incorporated in community policing under the Nyumba Kumi initiative currently led by the former Provincial Commissioner Joseph Kaguthi.
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 22 – Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo has said that only police officers who have retired honourably from the service will join the National Association of Retired Police officers.
“We have been trying to get records of some of the retired officers even the junior officers when we want to know where they are This association is going to assist us,” The Inspector General of Police said when he met officers who retired in the rank of commissioner and heads of directorates.
In a similar formation like that of counties, the association will have 47 chapters.
This means those who have been found unfit during the ongoing police vetting by the National Police Service Commission will not join the association.
Nineteen senior police officers have since been sacked but one was re-instated after a review of the outcome.
At the end of the exercise, 80,000 police officers will be vetted in a bid to reform the National Police Service.
The applicable vetting standards include officers’ satisfaction of entry and training requirements, their professional conduct and discipline, integrity, financial probity, and respect for human rights.
Officers who satisfy the commission with regard to competence and suitability will be retained and those who do not will be removed from the service.
This also affects officers who have left the service on disciplinary grounds.
Kimaiyo asked all those officers who have retired honourably to join the service.
He expects to tap into their experience of 10,000 plus retired officers in community policing.
The officers will also be required to share their experience with recruits undergoing training and in other forums.
The officers, Kimaiyo said, will also work as a link between police and the members of the public. This is expected to help boost the waning public trust of the police by the members of the public.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku has since said the retired officers are instrumental in sharing their experience on how to deal with insecurity challenges.
Lenku who spoke to journalists on August 12 after meeting some representatives of the retirees said a legislative and administrative framework will be drafted to support the initiative.
“As a country we greatly appreciate sacrifices made by police officers some of which has paid the ultimate price with their lives to fight crime and insecurity in this country,” he stated.
He said this group “will help in providing an important of interface of community policing level.”
“A country that forgets its retiree’s risks losing a critical source of accumulated knowledge gained through years of training and even more years of practical service.”
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