New rules to streamline police, AP recruitment

By Cyrus Ombati

The national joint recruitment of more than 7,000 police trainees will be done over 24 hours to prevent corruption and block aspirants from applying at several centres.

Recruits will be asked if they want to join the Administration or Kenya Police before they are allowed to join the colleges between May 12 and 15.

The Government announced the recruitment would take place on April 27 at all the 286 district headquarters, to pave way for a 15-month training programme at the Administration Police Training College, Embakasi, and Kiganjo Police College, Nyeri. Internal Security Permanent Secretary Francis Kimemia said the recruits must apply for the vacancies by filling forms at the centres, and those successful will be informed on the same day.

An advert indicating the requirements of the recruits is appearing elsewhere in this paper.

Officials drawn from the local District Security and Intelligence Committees, Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, the public, church leaders and the ministries of Education and Health will be invited to oversee the exercise, Kimemia said.

"Any complaints will taken into account and investigated. We want this exercise to be transparent," said Kimemia.

Spirit of new laws

This is the first time the exercise is being conducted jointly in the spirit of the new Constitution, which harmonises relations between the two forces that have historically been at loggerheads.

The minimum requirement for recruits is a C (plain), up from the previous D (Plain). The minimum age has also been increased to between 18 and 28 years for KCSE holders, and 30 years for university graduates.

"The mean grade will be C except for places where there would be none. That, however, has to be exceptional for the recruits to be taken and the issue of gender has to be observed," said Kimemia.

The exercise is likely to lock out thousands of youth still waiting for their identification cards, which cannot be provided by the Ministry of Immigration due to a tussle over who should issue them.

There will be 6,000 vacancies for police constables and 700 for cadets, who must be university graduates.

Kimemia said the number of successful recruits from each district will be announced before the commencement of the exercise and those selected equally will be announced at the end.

Each of the locations must have a recruit joining the forces. Kimemia spoke yesterday after opening a paramilitary course for over 700 administration officers, chiefs and assistants at the APTC in Nairobi.

Compulsory internship

A curriculum for training of the recruits has also been unveiled, said Kimemia. Constables will be trained for 15 months, including a three-month compulsory internship, while cadets will be in college for 21 months, including a three-month internship.

In the past, the recruits have undergone a nine-month training programme at the colleges without internship. The administrator said the process of training 656 instructors to support the implementation of the new curriculum had started.

The new group will be trained in management, research methodology, judicial procedure, information security management, psychology, cyber crime, customer care, human rights and security, and safety in general.

A senior police officer told The Standard about 2,000 officers leave the force for various reasons every year.

The PS said the Government intends to fill the gaps through the recruitment of 14,000 new police recruits by December next year.

Kimemia said 4,000 would join the Administration Police while the rest will be accommodated in the regular police unit because the later lacks capacity to handle a larger population.

The gap in the police force was created by a moratorium that was put in place in 2009 to allow police reforms, following recommendations made in the Philip Ransley report on police reforms.

The report recommended a two-year moratorium on recruitment to allow the merger of the two forces under an Inspector General as provided for in the new Constitution.

Kimemia said the recruitment would supplement the police population ahead of the 2012 General Election, during which security agencies anticipate an upsurge in criminal activity.

He said the exercise is expected to address the police-to-population ratio deficit resulting from a moratorium on police recruiting for the last three years.

Kimemia said four bills — National Police Service Bill 2010, Independent Policing Oversight Authority Bill, 2010, National Police Service Commission Bill 2010 and Private Security Industry Regulation Bill 2010 — are with the Constitution Implementation Commission and will strengthen the legal and institutional framework of the forces’ operations.