National Intelligence Service officers now get key role in counties security

By Cyrus Ombati

Nairobi, Kenya: Intelligence officers will now be secretaries of security committees at the county level.

The County National Intelligence Service officers will replace the provincial commissioners and district commissioners who used to chair and serve as secretaries in their jurisdictions.

Interior Principal Secretary Mutea Iringo said the move is part of efforts to ensure smooth running of security matters at various levels.

“The intelligence chiefs at these levels will be secretaries while police from regular, Administration and CID will be members. The county commissioners will be the chairpersons,” Iringo said.

There has been confusion at the county levels with regard to running of security matters.

In some counties, poor relationships between security chiefs have affected affairs.

Embu County was adversely mentioned as one of the areas whose commanders are under probe for failing to work together.

Iringo said that from the national level there will be the national security council, national security advisory committee, county security committee, sub county security committee and ward security teams.

He made the remarks as Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo decried disunity between the police service and NIS when it came to sharing of intelligence.

Sharing intelligence

“Information is good. But if you have information and you keep mum, it becomes useless. Please let us share information that can make us safer,” he appealed. Some intelligence officers accuse the police of misusing information that they share with them, a claim the former deny.

The two made the remarks while addressing a team of security chiefs at the Kenya School of Government in Kabete during a meeting aimed at checking how they have been handling crime.

Officials from Kenya Prisons, Kenya Wildlife Service, Immigration Department and Registration of Persons were present.

Kimaiyo said the police were also pursuing two hardcore criminals who were roaming the country but did not disclose whether they were terrorists.

He noted that in Nairobi alone, several vigilante gangs including Superpower and Mungiki had been profiled and that 18 schools are under surveillance for radicalising youths.

Further, he said, some former police and military officers are now on a special register and under watch.

As part of measures to tame crime, more than 1,600 identity cards have been invalidated in Nairobi and 13 new machines to validate the documents have been bought so far.