Police to man party nominations

By CYRUS OMBATI

Police officers who will be manning polling centres during the General Election will also offer security on January 17, when political parties hold nominations.

The officers will use the exercise to gauge their preparedness for the March 4 elections.

Inspector General of police David Kimaiyo announced this after meeting senior police officers to discuss crime and coming elections.

Officers drawn from General Service Unit, Administration Police and regular officers will be deployed at various stations.

Police plan to deploy about 90,000 officers to provide security before and after the General Election to avoid recurrence of post-election violence.

Kimaiyo said police were determined and prepared to ensure that the next polls are not marred with violence.

The Police Department, including regular and Administration Police, has slightly more than 70,000 officers.

This means Mr Kimaiyo will seek more officers from the prisons, forest department and National Youth Service.

The meeting that took place at CID Pavilion in Nairobi was attended by all senior officers based at Vigilance House and Administration Police headquarters, all PPOs and other formation commanders.

Sources said police fear violence may erupt at various places where nominations will be held hence need for proper planning.

Reports show some aspirants are planning to cause chaos if they lose in the nominations.

Major political parties plan to hold their primaries on January 17 before submitting the list of their candidates to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) the following day.

Kimaiyo’s meeting also addressed the shortage of resources that the police is facing ahead of the elections. Journalists were not allowed into the meeting.

The Inspector General is expected to give IEBC a budget of what they will require to manage the exercise, which is estimated to run into more than Sh3 billion.

“The Ministry of Internal Security has mapped all hot spots in the country and what remains now is deployment as required and proper monitoring. We have a plan that can work well,” he said.