Top police command overhauled in changes

The top National Police Service command was Friday overhauled in changes announced by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The president said he had consulted with the National Police Service Commission and the Inspector General of Police to make the changes.

Only the Inspector General of police Joseph Boinnet survived the shocker, which saw his deputies Joel Kitili (Kenya Police), Samuel Arachi (Administration Police) and Ndegwa Muhoro (Directorate of Criminal Investigations) moved to the Public Service for redeployment.

The new DIG for Kenya police is outgoing presidential escort commander Edward Njoroge Mbugua while the current commandant of Kenya Police Training College Gabow Noor.

The National Police Service spokesman George Kinoti was named the Director of Criminal Investigations. They will be in office in acting capacity.

Edward Mbugua- is former Coast police boss before 2013 before he was moved to State House and named the presidential security escort commander. He takes over a seat that is hot and a time when the service is facing many challenges in terms of reforms.

Gabow Noor- he was named the commandant of Kiganjo two months ago. Prior to that he was the director of planning at police headquarters. He had also served as police boss for North Eastern and at the UN peacekeeping mission.

He comes to the seat as the first officer from outside the AP.

George Kinoti - he was the immediate former spokesman of the police. Previously, he had served as head of security at the Central Bank of Kenya, head of police complaints at police headquarters, personal assistant to the Director of Criminal Investigations and several divisions as the DCIO. He comes to office that is accused of many issues including unsolved cases.

The president redeployed the first serving Directorate of Criminal Investigations Muhoro, Kitili and his Administration counterpart Arachi.

“In order to enhance service delivery and efficiency in the police service. I have made the following changes for redeployment to the Public Service Commission for further redeployment,” he said.

The new changes come a time when the National Police Service was under unrelenting attacks from rights groups and the Opposition, for how they managed the country’s pro-longed electioneering period.

During and after August and October’s elections, 92 people were felled by police bullets leading to a public outcry.

The majority were opposition supporters, who would often clash with police during protests.

Joel Kitili – The outgoing Kenya Police boss was appointed to the position in 2015, a period when the country was facing a serious terror threat from the Somalia based Al-Shabaab militia.

Kitili was the GSU commandant until his nomination replacing Grace Kaindi.

He also served as the Rift Valley regional coordinator.

In June 2012, he was chased out of State House, where he was the commandant of the presidential escort over an alleged disagreement with a member of the then First Family.

He was then appointed head of the national armoury.

Samuel Arachi is a holder of Master’s Degree in International Relations, a Bachelor’s Degree in Arts and a Postgraduate Diploma in International Relations (1992) all from University of Nairobi.

He is a career civil servant who started off as an Assistant Secretary in 1989 and rose through the ranks to the position of District Commissioner in 1983 and was later promoted to the position of Senior AP Commandant 1 in 2012 prior to his current appointment as a DIG (AP).