Muhoro is expected to continue discharging his duties until he reaches mandatory retirement age of 60

Director of Criminal Investigations Ndegwa Muhoro. (Photo: Courtesy)

Director of Criminal Investigations Ndegwa Muhoro will not leave office by February next year, when he will have served a six-year term.

Instead, Mr Muhoro, 54, is expected to continue discharging his duties until he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 60 or is fired/redeployed by the President.

This was made possible when Parliament amended the National Police Service Act in 2014 and 2015, by deleting a section of the law that provided for the six-year term, allowing the chief detective to serve at the pleasure of the President. Although both the Constitution and the Act did not specify the term of office, the MPs deleted section 29 (2) of the 2011 Act that empowered the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) to set the term of the DCI.

When the Johnson Kavuludi-led NPSC appointed him in February 2012, they offered the DCI chief a six-year term, which would have lapsed in the next three months.

The commission is said to have contemplated replacing Muhoro, who has been at the helm of the DCI for about eight years, but were held back by this law.     

“Someone pointed out to the commission that section 30, which provided for competitive recruitment, was no longer operational. Our hands are now tied. He serves at the pleasure of the President,” an insider at NPSC told The Standard.