Recalled police commanders given operational posts at headquarters

Police Inspector General Joseph Boinnet. [File, Standard]

Recalled top police commanders have been given newly-created posts at police headquarters in Nairobi.

They will now head sections as regional operations coordinators in which they liaise with the commanders on the ground in the country on operational matters.

Former Central Regional Commander Gideon Amalla was given Nairobi and Central regions to coordinate operational issues while Eastern’s Moses Ombati will oversee Coast and North Eastern regions.

Former Central region commander Solomon Makau was sent to oversee operations in Boni Forest in Lamu while Rift Valley’s Francis Munyambu will coordinate Eastern region and William Saiya will oversee all National Police Service Training Colleges.

The Deputy Inspector General of police Njoroge Mbugua redeployed former Nyanza regional commander Leonard Katana to be operations coordinator for traffic matters while he sent Coast’s Noah Mwivanda to the complaints directorate.

Former Western region boss will coordinate operations in Nyanza and Western. The changes were announced on Wednesday. Nairobi’s Joseph ole Tito will coordinate Rift Valley region.

“Their role will be only operational matters. Some of them are retiring in three or four months’ time,” said an insider aware of the issues.

On January 3, new eight Regional Police Commanders were unveiled in changes to affect at least 200 senior officers.

This saw at least 20 police officers recalled to the headquarters for redeployment.

The new commanders named include Philip Ndolo (Nairobi), Marcus Ochola (Coast), Eunice Kihiko (Eastern), Judy Jebet Lamet (Central), Edward Mwamburi (Rift Valley), Paul Soi (North Eastern), Vincent Makokha (Nyanza) and Rashid Yakub (Western).

In the APS, Mr Omar Shurie who has been stationed in Garissa to oversee North Eastern region was moved to the Inspector General’s office while Mr Musa Kakawa was redeployed to be head of Critical Infrastructure Protection Unit (CIPU) based at Athi River.

Nairobi region APS commander John Murage was posted to Security of Government Buildings as the officer in charge while Joseph Keitany was moved from Eastern to APS headquarters as head of operations and James Agoro was moved from Coast to Rapid Deployment Unit as the head.

Joshua Wambua was moved from Western to APS headquarters, Jones Kavoi from SGB to APS headquarters and Chris Muthee from RDU to APS headquarters.

The three main units in the NPS have shared top slots in the county command structure.

Informed insiders say pending changes to affect County Commanders will see APS get 19 slots, DCI five and KPS 23 to cover all the 47 counties.

All Anti Stock Theft Unit (ASTU) KPS 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.