The Committee seeks to bring together National Police Service Commission and the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) to allow 10,000 recruits to continue with the training as a repeat exercise is conducted in 36 centres whose results were nullified/FILE
The Committee seeks to bring together National Police Service Commission and the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) to allow 10,000 recruits to continue with the training as a repeat exercise is conducted in 36 centres whose results were nullified.
IPOA had filed the case against the National Police Service Commission seeking to have the recruitment process nullified over allegations of massive irregularities.
Members of the committee has however taken issue with the fact that different institutions of government were ‘fighting’ each other.
During the meeting a member of the committee Mohamed Shidiye said: “One section of government taking another to court is unprecedented, we are concerned that this matter is taking another direction.”
While reiterating Shidiye’s statement, Major (Rtd) John Waluke said: “We need as a committee to stand firm and even call IPOA to appear before us and maybe talk to them and tell them to withdraw the case in court. This is the same family under this committee; we do not see why they went that far to take their brothers’ to court.”
IPOA had moved to court over seven issues among them; that the recruitment exercise contravened the Constitution since it was conducted by sub-county commissioners who are not members of the police service and that the process did not meet the constitutional requirement of public participation.
“The commission disagrees with the issues raised by IPOA and we have therefore filed our responses and affidavits before court for determination,” was the response by Police Service Commission chairman Johnstone Kavuludi.
He further stated that none of the grounds posed by IPOA touched on the claims of massive irregularities.
When asked for comment on whether withdrawing the case against NPSC was an option, IPOA Chairperson Njeru Macharia said he could not comment on the matter since it was in court pending determination.
Kavuludi however said they, together with the EACC and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, were conducting parallel investigations to take action against individuals found culpable of corrupt activities.
“We are therefore Mr Chairman not investigating police officers; we are investigating members of the recruitment committees which comprise eight institutions that were part and parcel of that recruitment- the sub county officer is not a police officer, the medical officer of health is not a police officer, the education officer is not a police officer, the county government representative is not a police officer, we therefore cannot single out police officers for action, that is why we have handed over that to those two agencies who have the requisite competence to do so,” clarified Kavuludi.
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