Only two planes at Police Air Wing are operational, says EACC

Inspector-General of the National Police Service Douglas Kanja. [David Gichuru, Standard]

Only two aeroplanes at the National Police Service (NPS) Air Wing are operational, a report from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) says. 

“At the time of the examination, out of the air wing’s fleet, only two were operational while the rest were grounded due to poor maintenance and lack of spare parts,” the report reads in part.

The report was an examination into the systems, policies, procedures and practices of the NPS.

It was commissioned by Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja in February when he invited EACC to audit systems and give recommendations on the service, including graft loopholes.

The report says the grounding of planes was a weakness that undermined the effectiveness, cost-efficiency and operational responsiveness of the police air wing.

This, the report notes, diminished NPS contribution to national security and public safety.

“The Inspector General should allocate adequate resources for fleet maintenance to restore airworthiness,” says the report.

“A comprehensive maintenance plan should be put in place to repair grounded aircraft and procure necessary spares, while any unsafe or beyond economic repair airframes should be disposed,” it adds. 

The report was based on interviews with the commandant and deputy commandant of the National Police Service Air Wing.

EACC further notes that there are structural issues with NPS when it comes to the air wing, which is under Inspector General Douglas Kanja in the organizational structure but reported functionally to his deputy Eliud Lagat.

The EACC report says NPS was yet to devolve functions of the Internal Affairs Unit (IAU) undertaken by civilians to counties. It notes that IAU was understaffed with only 74 staff against the recommended 1,168. Of the IAU staff, only 10 were non-uniformed.

“Understaffing is a weakness that crippled the actualization of the unit’s mandate, hindering effective service delivery,” says the report.

It further notes that IAU staff were being recruited from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Administration Police Service and Kenya Police Service through internal adverts.

Due to this fact, the report says that IAU staff could still be deployed and transferred from the unit to the three services at Kanja’s will.

“For instance, in March 2024, the IG redeployed 53 out of 120 officers, reducing the unit’s strength to 67 officers. Subsequently, 30 of the remaining officers were recalled for promotional training, leaving only 27 officers available to execute the unit’s mandate.”

The unit was found with no platform to give feedback to complainants, informants and whistleblowers.