NAIROBI: Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery met all county commissioners and regional coordinators Tuesday and told them to embrace the planned security structure to address insecurity.
Nkaissery said there are plans to establish a clear command structure and to end conflict between governors and county commissioners over insecurity.
This follows the plans to set up County Policing Authorities.
He said he was aware of the challenges of co-ordination of security and the problem of lack of a single command for the various branches of the police, which has been affecting operations.
He urged the commissioners to advise him where rivalry among police units undermined effective co-ordination of police operations so that he can take appropriate remedial action.
Nkaissery said there was need for commissioners to work with governors in an effort to tame insecurity.
“As county commissioners working through County Security Committees, you must map out county-specific security challenges and take appropriate measures to address them,” he said.
He also said he would step up efforts to deal with the corruption that is prevalent in various sectors in his ministry.
“Corruption is the major problem and threat to national security and we have to fight it firmly. I’m ready to come head on with the challenges of fighting corruption and we have to fight it together or fight those who propagate it,” he said.
ILLEGAL ARMS
Unemployment, poverty, underdevelopment and negative cultural practices, he said, were contributing factors to crime and must be addressed by leaders.
Nkaissery further noted that proliferation of illegal arms remained a major challenge.
“County and Sub-County Security Committee chairmen, you should start mapping out areas with proliferation of small arms and light weapons so as to launch the disarmament exercise as soon as possible.”
Last week, Chairman of the Council of Governors Isaac Ruto gazetted the new guidelines to mobilise the establishment of the County Policing Authorities. Governors will appoint six officials to the authorities that will include senior police officers and representatives from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
The governors, who met Nkaissery on Wednesday last week, have two weeks to begin setting up the authorities.
Each ex-officio member will be nominated from the NIS, Kenya Police, Administration Police, Directorate of Criminal Investigations, county assembly and the Office of the County Commissioner.
Governors will appoint six civilians from the business sector, community based organisations, religious organisations, people with special needs, youth and women’s groups. “The County Public Service Board shall within 14 days advertise in at least one national or county newspaper of wide circulation requesting for qualified people to be nominated,” read the notice.
The authorities will be mandated to keep an eye on the police, monitor trends and patterns of crime and promote community policing initiatives.
