How top police slots will be shared in new structure

The recently appointed regional police commanders. [Edward Kiplimo, Standard]

All the three units in the National Police Service have shared top slots in the command structure as the planned merger takes off. 

The eight regional commanders have been named; with the slots shared among the Kenya Police, Administration Police Service (APS) and Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

Three of those picked are from APS, one from DCI and the rest from the Kenya Police.

New faces

Insiders say pending changes to affect county commanders will see APS get 19 slots, DCI five and Kenya Police 23 to cover all the 47 counties.

Most of the current county commanders are due for retirement and are above the required rank for one to hold the position. This means new faces are to be named to the positions. 

Those in the required ranks but above 56 are being recalled to police headquarters for redeployment.

Both Kenya Police and APS have recalled their regional commanders and named new ones.

DCI is also set to recall their commanders in line with a directive aimed at enhancing operations and accountability in the service. 

Anti-Stock Theft Unit (ASTU), Kenya Police officers have been moved to APS which has been left with four units including ASTU, Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU), Border Patrol Unit (BPU) and Critical Infrastructure and Security of Government Buildings unit.

Structural changes

The structural changes are set to affect at least 200 senior officers.

Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet made the announcement on Wednesday.

He said the primary considerations in selecting the commanders were length and conduct while in service, age, as well as gender parity.

“Those officers will henceforth assume full command of all police operations in the regions that they have been posted to and will be responsible for coordinating with commanders to ensure effective, efficient and responsive delivery of policing services in their areas,” he said.

AP camps that are far from stations will be turned into police posts.