Ten senior police officers transferred over insecurity

By Cyrus Ombati

NAIROBI, KENYA: Ten senior police officers including Bungoma OCPD Amos Cheboi have been shuffled over rising insecurity in the country.

The National Police Service Commission is also considering transfer of more than 800 Administration Police officers in the country as part of the measures to address the issue of insecurity.

Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo announced the transfer of Cheboi tat police headquarters.

Nyeri OCPD Kirinya Limbitu has been moved to Bungoma to replace Cheboi while Lugari OCPD John Leshimbiro is the new Nyeri police boss.

Rachuonyo deputy OCPD Bernard Macharia has been promoted and named the new Lugari OCPD while Vihiga’s Lawrence Garama has been moved to police headquarters, personnel division.

The new Vihiga OCPD is Mr Alfred Onyango who has been operating from police headquarters, Vigilance House.

Mr Elphas Korir, the OCPD for Teso North has been moved to Vigilance House and will be replaced by Lucas Onyango while the new Laikipia East police boss will be Kipkorir Tum who will replace Joshua Lekutai.

The areas affected by the changes have been experiencing fluctuating rate of crime eliciting an outcry.

Kimaiyo also wants more than 800 APs to be moved for various reasons including medical grounds and overstaying at a particular station.

They include Isaac Alimaa from Garisa to Lugari, Christopher Bungei from Lugari to Garissa, Isaac Bule from Dadaab to Tana Delta and be replaced by Christophwe Mbatu.

Kimaiyo has proposed a new structure that will be adopted in deploying new police commanders in accordance with the law.

He said he wants the commission to establish County Policing Authority, a command which will include County Kenya Police Service Commanding Officers, County Administration Police Commanding Officers and Criminal Investigations Officers. 

Failure to deploy police commanders to the Counties has been cited as part of the causes of insecurity across the country. 

Kimaiyo said he wanted that the new commanders be of the rank of Assistant Inspector General and gave a timeline that should be followed in appointing and posting the officers.

According to him, the posting should be done in the first week of June after the successful candidates are trained on various issues.