Members of Parliament's plot that could kick Kavuludi out of the office

By Mwaniki Munuhe

NAIROBI, KENYA: Members of Parliament are gathering support for a high level plot to eject Johnstone Kavuludi from the helm of the National Police Service Commission (NPSC).

The plan involves amendments to the National Police Service Commission Act to make the Inspector General (IG) of Police the chairman of the NPSC. This is in addition to other changes to the NPSC and Police Service Acts meant to give IG David Kimaiyo more powers.

“There is concurrence that the Inspector General should have powers to do more than he is able to do today,” says Laikipia West MP Wachira Karani.

The public have two weeks to present their views on two amendment Bills the Attorney General’s office forwarded on Thursday to the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution.

Some of the changes give the IG control of disciplinary issues, promotions and transfers, and investigations into police crimes.

Power struggle

The NPSC Chairman has been involved in a power struggle with Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo over police staffing and deployment. The tide in the battle appears to have turned decisively with the appointment of 141 county commanders. On Monday, Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku sided with Kimaiyo on the matter. Now, plans are afoot to keep Kavuludi out from causing more trouble for the police boss.

The move has broad support in the two Houses of Parliament and in the Executive, we can reliably report. Senior officers from the Regular Police, Administration Police and General Service Unit also back the plan to have Kimaiyo chair NPSC. It was arrived at after talks involving members of the police service, the NPSC itself and the Executive.

The MP for Laikipia West confirmed that lawmakers are in talks over changes that ensure the Inspector General automatically heads the service commission.

“The National Assembly Speaker is the automatic chair of the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) and the Chief Justice chairs the Judicial Service Commission (JSC),” Dr Karani points out.

“They understand their departments best. It is only logical that the Inspector General chairs the Police Service Commission. If that were the case, we would not be having all these squabbles you are seeing today.”

Police operations

Cord legislator Olago Aluoch of Kisumu West agrees: “A civilian should not chair or head police operations. That is why we are saying the Police Service Commission should be chaired by the Inspector General.” Senate Majority whip Beatrice Elachi said the political leadership in the second House of Parliament is also agreeable to the proposed amendment.

“It was a mistake to bring civil society structures into our security management,” she says. “We will make sure the Inspector General chairs the commission so that we have one central command headed by somebody with a deep understanding of security requirements and operations. Even in the United States, there is one security structure. This activist mentality is what is messing us up. Running a security structure is not the same as running a non-governmental activists’ group.”

Members of the NPSC are adamant there should be no changes that increase Kimaiyo’s powers or weaken the commission.

Disciplined forces

 However, during the talks that led to the proposal, it was argued Kavuludi does not understand the operations of the disciplined forces fully. Failure to amend the law to allow the IG more operational powers, his critics said, could only worsen the efficiency of the force.

One of the senior police officers who spoke to The Standard On Saturday said the battle between Kimaiyo and Kavuludi is affecting service delivery.

“There is urgent need to deal with this problem,” he says, adding that junior officers are not aware of many changes at the top. “When the commission is talking about transferring an officer, the IG is talking about deploying or attaching officers. For instance, former police spokesman Eric Kiraithe is attached to Kenya Airports Authority, another officer may be said to have been deployed to another region as OCPD. While the commission might call that a transfer, the IG would be talking of deployment. There are many other cases in which a lot of confusion is arising.”

The officer, however, warned that the IG should not have the final word on disciplinary action against any officer from the rank of inspector and above. Under the old Constitution, he points out, disciplinary action against senior officers would be decided by the Public Service Commission, not the Commissioner of Police.

Our sources add that officers serving under the rank of inspectors are fighting for the retention of the powers currently being enjoyed by the Kavuludi commission. They say senior officers often abuse their powers and need to be checked.

This comes as war of words rages over who between the NPSC and the IG should have hired county commanders for the various arms of the police service. Some senior officers claim the process begun by NPSC was marred by bribery demands.

Kimaiyo later defied NPSC and unilaterally appointed 141 commanders without involving the commission. The move was this week supported by Mr Mutea Iringo, President Uhuru Kenyatta’s nominee for Principal Secretary in the Interior ministry.