National Police Service Commission boss Kavuludi receives strange request at vetting exercise

The National Police Service Commission was faced with a strange request from an officer in the ongoing police vetting exercise when he asked the chair if he could be allowed to be sworn in before the vetting process begins.

Carrying a Qur’an, the former Senior Deputy Police Commissioner, Roba Kalicha Dima, asked the chair of the NPSC Johnstone Kavuludi to be allowed to pray and be sworn in before the exercise begun, a request that was turned down.

Despite the chairperson of the NPSC Johnston Kavuludi insisting that the vetting process is a professional exercise and not a court proceeding, a good number of the officers being vetted found themselves being reminded of the same.

The former Senior Deputy Commissioner of police, Samuel Orina Nyabeki, as the first one to be vetted yesterday.

He was asked by the commission to respond to the allegations tabled before the commission that his lawyer had sent a report indicating that there were 13 witnesses who were willing to defend him before the commission when needed to do so.

 In his defence, Samuel Nyabeki explained the act as an oversight by his lawyer saying he sought legal counsel due to the limited time factor he had to present evidence before the commission.

Kavuludi however expressed his disappointment over the situation.

‘’Reports from your lawyer were unprecedented. This is a professional exercise, not a court proceeding,” he said.

Samuel Nyabeki was asked also to elaborate how he ended up being a ‘trustee’ for several properties belonging to his late brother in law without legal documentation.

 He however argued that even though his brother did not leave a will, the ‘trustee’ status was handed to him verbally by the deceased before his death.

This comes a day after a former Senior Police Commissioner, Francis Omondi, was termed hostile by the commission for failing to follow directives of the chair in answering of the questions.

This is a second vetting for most of the officers who found reprieve by the high court after being dismissed earlier by the commission.