Is IG Kanja in control of the police?

Police IG Douglas Kanja, when he presided over a rehearsal of the Administration Police Service ahead of their pass-out graduation in Utawala, Nairobi. September 1, 2026. [Kanyiri Wahito, Standard]

The involvement of police officers in the abduction of Standard Group Associate Editor Alex Kiprotich has put in the spotlight Inspector General (IG) Douglas Kanja with critics accusing him of losing control of the National Police Service (NPS) amid raising concerns of political interference.

The abduction of Kiprotich is the latest in a series of incidents, many Kenyans cite as proof of parallel forces calling the shots outside police command structures.

Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, while dismissing Kanja’s promise that a thorough probe will be conducted into Kiprotich’s kidnapping, was categorical that the IG is not in charge of the NPS, which he claimed is being run by senior officials in government.

“That investigation, like all the others you have ordered, will go nowhere because it was done by police officers outside your command. You are clueless about the operations of the National Police Service. I do have more information as to the happenings in the Service than you do,” said Gachagua.

According to the former DP, the police command was taken over a long time ago by Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen and Internal Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo, with the concurrence of President William Ruto, and that orders are directly issued to his deputy Eliud Langat alongside Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss Mohamed Amin.

“You are just a flower girl leading a shell, and you will be sacrificed at the right time and blamed for the excesses in the Service,” claimed Gachagua.

The growing pattern of police using lethal force against critics, opposition and demonstrators has left no doubt that Kanja is not in full control, with Linda Mwananchi chaos in Homa Bay, the Ol Kalou by-election and Linda Mwananchi attack in Kisii emerging as the most recent cases of a partisan Service.

Other incidents include, in June this year, when hired goons stormed All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi, disrupting a post-budget review by a section of civil society. A similar incident was witnessed the following month when heavily armed goons attempted to stop a service at St. Stephen’s ACK Cathedral in Kisumu where Linda Mwananchi leaders were in attendance.

In January, plain-clothes police officers, accompanied by goons, invaded Witima ACK Church in Othaya of Nyeri County, opening fire and lobbing teargas canisters in a bid to eject former DP Gachagua, who was in attendance.

The handling of the 2024 Finance Bill protest and subsequent demonstrations has been cited as another example of demonstrating police lack of independence. Anti-riot police officers were accused by civil society rights defenders of using lethal force, making arbitrary arrests, carrying out abductions and enforced disappearances.

The Constitution further prohibits security officers and the national organs from acting in a partisan manner as spelt out in Article 239 (3) (a); the Article stops police from advancing the interest of a political party.    

The loss of independence by IG Kanja, human rights defenders maintain, has further eroded public trust in police, with the resultant outcome being people taking the law into their own hands.

“The attack on Alex leaves no doubt among Kenyans that the National Police Service is not independent but under state capture. The worse bit is that those interfering are bypassing the IG while giving orders to his juniors,” said Hussein Khalid, Chief Executive Officer, VOCAL Africa.

He warned that Kenya risks descending into anarchy should the worrying trend persist, arguing that once Kenyans totally lose confidence in the criminal justice system, they will resort to unorthodox methods to settle differences or disputes.

Hussein claimed that NPS has “moles” who undermine IG Kanja by reporting directly to Murkomen and President William Ruto.

“It is a bother that our National Police Service is run clandestinely, allowing politicians to misuse the security apparatus to further their own selfish interests at the expense of protecting wananchi. Once they start taking the law into their own hands, we shall have no country but ruins of anarchy,” noted Hussein.

The re-ignited debate on police independence comes in the backdrop of the Maraga taskforce report that established that NPS lost its independence following the amendment of the National Police Service Act, 2011.

The alterations through the Security Laws (Miscellaneous Amendment) Act 2014 weakened the institutional buffer between the Executive and IG, leaving the police command structure vulnerable to political manipulation.

The Maraga taskforce that sought views from Kenyans and police officers found out that successive governments since the enactment of laws regarding reforms have not come up with clear policies to guide the process of sustainable police reforms that will enable police to be independent.

Instead, the country has witnessed a pattern of micro-management of NPS, hence blurring the line between policy-making and control of police operations. This, according to the taskforce, goes against the spirit of the Constitution, eroding the operational independence of the IG and Service.

“The Constitution seeks to remedy a past where the police and other security agencies were politically misused to entrench the advantage of the government of the day and to punish political competition. The Constitution provides the tools for transforming the entrenched culture of the Service bearing allegiance to the political elite rather than the Constitution and the Kenyan people,” says the Maraga report. 

As debate on independence of police rages on, Gachagua challenged Kanja to release investigation findings into attacks that targeted him at Witima ACK Church, Mwiki PCEA Church, and Kariobangi PCEA Church before his officers probe the latest case of abduction targeting Kiprotich.

“You have no report to release because no investigations were carried out, and none will be carried out. You cannot investigate your seniors, and police cannot investigate themselves,” said the former DP.