Hillary Mutyambai (pictured) took over office as the third Inspector General of the National Police Service with a promise to deal with corruption.

Mr Mutyambai, who was sworn into office by Chief Justice David Maraga at the Supreme Court Building, said he would use the police’s internal affairs unit to address the menace in the service.

He later met President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House, Nairobi.

“I am fully in support of the ongoing fight against corruption. I want to be clear that we must all join hands in the fight against the vice.

“We as the National Police Service will play our enforcement role guided by high fidelity to the law and also ensure we eliminate corruption within our rank and file,” said Mutyambai.

He added: “I will initiate a system that enhances accountability and responsibility within the National Police Service, which will expand the work of the independent internal affairs unit (IAU) to investigate corruption cases within the police service.”

He said the IAU would be decentralised and would operate across the country.

Mutyambai said his top priorities would be to improve service delivery at police stations as well as the working conditions for police officers.

“I intend to continue with the reforms under the theme of enhancing police service delivery at the grassroots. We will be keen to transform each police station into a centre of delivery for policing services.”

He added that new police stations would be built and the old ones renovated to meet modern policing standards and improve working conditions of police officers.

Mutyambai said he would engage with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission on the issue of house allowances to ensure that police officers lived in decent and affordable houses.

He also promised to make sure that the National Police Service Referral Hospital was constructed and became operational as soon as possible.

Under his command, Mutyambai said he would implement the police service information management system that seeks to digitise the Occurrence Book (OB) and case file management system.

“This will enable members of the public to track their complaints and enable them give us feedback,” he said.

He also assured the public he would crack the whip on rogue officers who violate human rights.

“I will endeavour to make sure all police officers respect human rights and fundamental freedoms as enshrined in the Constitution,” said Mutyambai.

Counter-terrorism

The 55-year-old career officer, who has 27 years of investigative and law enforcement experience, previously served as counter-terrorism deputy director at the National Intelligence Service.

Mutyambai becomes the third IG under the new constitutional dispensation after Joseph Boinnet, who took office in February 2015, replacing David Kimaiyo who is the chairman of the Kenyatta National Hospital board.

Mutyambai comes to office when a number of reforms are being implemented in the service. The changes include 24,000 Administration Police Service (APS) personnel set to join the Kenya Police and adoption of a new uniform for the more than 65,000 officers.

On corruption, President Kenyatta last week said a recent digital listing of police officers weeded out more than 2,600 ghost workers and saved the country Sh1.7 billion in annual wages.

The Kenya Police had 1,447 ghost workers, 1,048 were in the Administration Police and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations had 153.