127 traffic police sacked after failing suitability test by Johnston Kavuludi’s commission

National Police Service Commission Chairman Johnston Kavuludi.PHOTO: FILE

NAIROBI: Kenya’s National Police Service Commission has sacked 127 traffic police officers after they failed a suitability test in a vetting exercise.

Some 904 traffic officers were vetted in May 2016 in Coast, Western, Rift Valley and Nyanza regions before the commission arrived at the decision.

Those affected are officers ranging from the rank of Chief Inspector to constable.

“The commission has vetted 904 traffic officers and removed from the service 127 officers deployed to the traffic department,” said commission chairman Johnson Kavuludi.

He said the officers were sacked for unexplained financial transactions, sending and receiving money from fellow officers in the traffic department, operating matatu business, receiving money from transporters and operators of breakdown services and professional misconduct.

Of those sacked, 36 are from Coast, 23 from Western, 50 from Rift Valley and 18 from Nyanza region.

The commission said 72 officers are pending investigations before their results are determined while 26 others were removed for opting not to be vetted.

“The fact that 127 officers out of the 904 so far vetted have been removed is a clear demonstration of the endemic vice of corruption in the traffic department,” said Kavuludi.

Deputy Inspector General of Kenya Police Joel Kitili, AP’s Samuel Arachi, DCI Ndegwa Muhoro and Commissioners Mary Owuor, Murshid Mohamed and Ronald Musengi were present.

He said lessons learnt from the vetting exercise informed the recent move to decentralize and devolve traffic operations for easy supervision.

Six other officers who had appealed their earlier decision of vetting- William Metto, Joseph Ngatwa, Chacha Daniel, Masoud Mwinyi, William Ngugi and Festus Malinge- were reinstated after passing.

Of this group that appealed, 12 failed the review while one opted to retire.

So far, the commission said sufficient measures have been put in place to monitor those removed from the service to ensure they don’t engage in crime.

Vetting on officers from Kajiado, Nairobi, Central, Eastern and North Eastern regions has started.

The commission has so far promoted five senior Assistant Inspectors General of police, 34 Assistant Inspector General of police, 233 commissioners of police and 411 Senior Superintendent of Police.

Out of 1,566 officers vetted in the last exercise, 1,501 passed and 80 failed. 33 were reconsidered after appeal.

The commission said vetting exercise is ongoing and is mandatory and that they are reviewing other appeals that are pending. The applicable vetting standards include officers’ satisfaction of entry and training requirements, their professional conduct and discipline, integrity, financial probity and respect for human rights.

Those removed had been accused of engaging in criminal activities, corruption, human trafficking, smuggling, submission of fake bank statements, unprofessional conduct and failure to provide documents or information required by the commission.

Since the commencement of the vetting of police officers in December 2013, four cohorts of officers comprising more than 2,000 have so far been vetted. They include Senior Deputy Commissioner of Police (SDCP) I&II, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police (SACP) and Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) and Superintendent of Police (SP), as well as Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP). The next group will be chief inspectors and inspectors who are taken to be engines of the service in terms of operations.