Flawed police listing centres to be revealed, Kavuludi promises

NAIROBI, KENYA: The centres where the just concluded recruitment of police have been nullified due to irregularities will be announced on Friday.

A multi-agency team set up to audit the exercise has established there were cases of extortion, bribery, favouritism, nepotism, discrimination and outright violation of the applicable procedures on recruitment in “few centres”.

The team presented its report to the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) Monday ahead of Thursday’s full meeting in which the commission will adopt it.

Commission chairman Johnston Kavuludi said they had so far received 621 responses from the public over the recruitment.

“Some were complaints, complements, descriptions on what happened at these centres and proposals on the way forward,” said Mr Kavuludi.

 DISCIPLINARY MEASURES

The team drawn from Ethics Anti-Corruption Commission, NPSC, National Intelligence Service and CID has made recommendations which insiders said include disciplinary measures and repeat of the exercise in some areas.

If the commission nullifies some of the affected centres, a number of District Commissioners, OCPDs and AP commanders could be prosecuted.

Kavuludi said preliminary findings show there were cases of bribery even as he distanced the commission from the irregularities.

Recruitment exercise for the 10,000 constables was allocated Sh86 million and was conducted in 288 constituencies or districts and was done by OCPDs, AP commanders and sub-county commissioners.

The process could be nullified at centres where the corruption claims are confirmed.

The recruits are expected to report to their respective colleges at Kiganjo and Embakasi on October 3.

Parliament has also called for postponement of the reporting dates until the investigations are complete.

Kavuludi asked for calm from the public and unsuccessful candidates as they conduct audit of the exercise for a fair and transparent exercise.