Policing oversight authority interviews end

By CYRUS OMBATI

Five candidates among them three women will on Monday be interviewed by the panel seeking to recruit the chairman of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA).

The five include long serving State Counsel Dorcas Oduor, lawyer Margaret Cheboiwo, Grace Nekoye Katasi, Kinuthia Wamwangi and Macharia Njeru.

Today’s exercise will mark the end of the search for the members who will sit in the authority that will among others monitor the abuses of the police force.

The panel is seeking to recruit seven members and a chairman to sit in IPOA.

Twenty-six candidates who included ten women were interviewed after they sought to be members of the authority.

The panel is then expected to forward the names of the successful candidates this week to the Prime Minister and President for appointment.

The authority will have a chairperson who is required by law to be a person qualified for appointment as a Judge of the High Court of Kenya.

The other members will appointed by virtue of their knowledge and at least fifteen years’ experience in the fields of criminology, psychology, law, human rights and gender, medicine, alternative dispute resolution, security or community policing.

Mandate

The mandate of the board will be to investigate any complaints related to disciplinary or criminal offences committed by any member of the National Police Service.

It will receive and investigate complaints by members of the National Police Service, monitor and investigate policing operations affecting members of the public.

The body will also conduct inspections of Police premises, including detention facilities under the control of the Service and review the patterns of Police misconduct and the functioning of the internal disciplinary process.

IPOA will publish findings of its investigations, monitoring, reviews and audits as it sees fit, including by means of the electronic or printed media.