Administration Police Service announces reporting dates for new recruits

President Uhuru Kenyatta inspects a Guard of honour during the 54th Pass-out parade of Administration police Recruits held at Administration police Training College in Nairobi on February 19, 2016. (Photo Willis Awandu/Standard)

Police recruits selected to join Administration Police Service have been advised on new report dates starting from Friday.

In a statement, the APS said recruits from Eastern, North Eastern and Coast will report Friday April 29, those from Nyanza, Western and Central on Saturday April 30 and Rift Valley, Nairobi, NYS and CID recruiting centres on Sunday May 1.

They should all report to Administration Police Training College in Embakasi for a nine-month training session.

“Kindly be informed that the newly appointed recruits will report to our college at APTC Embakasi on the dates indicated against their respective regions of recruitment,” read part of a notice issued.

The recruits are among the 10,000 who were recruited to join the National Police Service. The rest of the group will report to Kiganjo Police Training College in Nyeri and General Service Unit College in Embakasi.

They had all picked their recruitment letters last Friday ahead of the reporting dates. It is not clear what necessitated the change of reporting dates but officials said they feared it would be chaotic for them to receive close to 4,000 recruits on a single day.

“It would be a challenge to handle such a huge group on a single day hence need to stagger the group on separate days. This will be manageable,” said an official who asked not to be named.

The exercise was conducted two weeks ago using new regulations. 10,000 recruits were picked in the exercise and will graduate in February 2017 ahead of the General Elections. Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery said the increase of police population will help in addressing various insecurity incidents.

“The new group will help us bridge the gap that had been created through various issues including natural attrition, sackings and resignations,” he said.

The Government said it will bond new police recruits for at least 10 years before they can be allowed to leave the service.

This lock-in clause is expected to manage the number of officers who leave for greener pastures after they are trained, a programme NPSC said is very costly.

The new regulations developed and published in April last year, set in place a requirement that National Police Service Commission appoints and mandates some agents to avert any form of irregularities.

They indicate that; where recruitment is delegated to the Inspector General, no recruitment may be commenced prior to the approval of the Commission. They further state that the Inspector General shall be held accountable for the recruitment and be guided by policies and regulations developed by the Commission.

They further state that any recruitment of any of the higher ranks shall be carried out directly by the Commission and that NPSC and the National Police Service shall maintain job descriptions and standard job specifications for all civilian and uniformed police positions as approved by the Commission and will be the basis for all recruitment.