State should initiate reforms in police to end old order

By John Gerezani

I am back. After a well earned break during which 1,500 recently promoted officers joined PSTC Ruiru for a three month course and Lady Justice Nancy Baraza was found unfit to serve in our Judiciary. I can only predict that the last four months of this year are going to be the most dramatic for the criminal justice system.

While I was away, senior officers at Magereza and Jogoo House resigned to jump into murky politics even before pertinent questions regarding performance and integrity at their former postings could be answered.

And now to the business of the day: I have to state that I have deep respect for former President Moi and I greatly admire his zeal and focus in matters that mean well for the nation.  But with due respect I have to disagree with him and Cotu boss Francis Atwoli on the issue of police reforms, especially on the time barred constitutional requirement for a new hierarchy (and new blood if I may add) at Vigilance House.

It is an open secret that high level jostling and political shenanigans have ensured the two-year window within which the changes were to be effected have lapsed and the status quo remains.

It is sad that reforms in the justice, law and order sector have been held hostage and even the reformed Judiciary is increasing getting besieged (surprisingly by a well-connected cadre of learned friends) whose deal cutting odysseys with bent judicial officers has been brought to a screeching halt by the Mutunga-Shollei tag team.

Without jumping the gun, could someone tell me if after the recent Garissa and Tana delta massacres any senior officer at Vigilance House has the moral authority to continue holding office. I will not even refer to the electrical fault attributed to what embarrassingly turned out to be a bomb blast at Assanands House in May.

Could someone tell me why Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere is still in office with the kind of evidence emanating from his own officers at the Saitoti inquiry.  That his bosses died in a chopper owned and manned by his department could have been sufficient reason to bow out on a high, but not in Kenya.

I am alive to reports that AP Commandant Kinuthia Mbugua quit to join politics and though his force is arguably the better structured, disciplined (and some say, favoured), there has been no claim of a vacuum being occasioned by his departure. Personalities come and go, but well built institutions stay long after their founders have quit.

As I have always stated, the security situation does not inspire public confidence in those calling the shots at Vigilance House. That goons could have the audacity to hurl grenades at police vehicles during the recent senseless Mombasa riots shows how the police force has degenerated. It need not be so.

 Let no one be deceived that immediate restructuring of the police force will foment trouble. That is plain fear-mongering championed by the same clique who threatened hell should a civilian be appointed as the new Inspector General.

 It is time to call their bluff since the rank and file in the police force want change.

They know that patronage, victimisation, favouritism, corruption and cronism will be dead and buried under a new Police Service Commission and that promotions will purely be on merit and work morale will be boosted.

Visit any police canteen or hang out and you will know what they think of the shenanigans being played out.

I have a radical suggestion to make. I saw the level of respect and awe Kenyans have for our armed forces during the post-election violence. I am also aware any officer above the rank of Superintendent is a gazetted officer who can be re-deployed to work in any Government department.

I am also alive to the fact that the same cadre have been asked to submit their papers to the Public Service Commission for scrutiny. Mambo rahisi (an easy matter). Redeploy the officers and ask Chief of Kenya Defence Forces Gen Julius Karangi and his boys to be on standby for two days should they try drama. Kenyans want a reformed police force and want it now. Over and Out Roger.

The writer comments on social issues