Senior police officers reshuffled

By Cyrus Ombati

Nairobi, Kenya: Kirinyaga OCPD Patrick Oduma has been moved to Central division in Nairobi in a mini reshuffle announced by Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo.

Oduma has been replaced by Mr John Kamau who was based at police headquarters, Vigilance House.

Mr Ali Ndiema has been named the deputy OCPD for Kayole police division to replace Benjamin Rotich who has been seconded to the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia.

 Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs) Godhard Kamau and Benard Korir, both from the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), have been transferred to GSU headquarters and CID headquarters respectively.

Mr Kamau will be in charge of administration, while Mr Korir is the deputy in charge of training at the CID headquarters.

Also sent UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan were Central OCPD Robinson Mboloi and head of Special Crimes Prevention Unit Said Kiprotich. Mr John Katumo will head the Special Crimes Prevention Unit for now.

Kimaiyo termed the changes as normal and aimed at enhancing police operations. More changes are expected soon because Kimaiyo has already designed a structure to be used for deployment of officers in the Counties.

“The structure is already in place and we as the National Police Service Commission are just waiting for few logistics to be met before we deploy the officers,” said Kimaiyo.

Already the commission has approved the promotions of more than 500 officers before they are deployed.

The commission met President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday and Thursday to brief him on agreed framework of implementing proposed reforms in the service.

Sources say Uhuru told the commission chaired by Johnstone Kavuludi to work together in achieving the proposed reforms.This followed an earlier one last week in which the commission had sought to see the president over internal squabbles. But Uhuru told the team to ensure the reforms are real and are felt by the public at large.

 Some members of the commission and outsiders had been pushing for the amendments in the National Police Service and the National PoliceService Commission Acts in a bid to weaken the commission’s mandate, which prompted the meeting in which Uhuru opposed the proposals until the laws are implemented.

 A group of human rights and governance organisation expressed concern over the slow pace of reforms in the National police service.

 The Police Reforms Working Group Kenya opposed the changes.

“Failure to reform the police will continue to be a major hindrance to reforms in the administration of justice sector for the police is a critical cog in the wheels of justice and occupy a critical position in upholding the security for all,” said the groups.

Representatives from Kenya Human Rights Commission, IMLU, ICJ, Cemiride, International Centre for Transitional Justice, Kenyans For Peace With Truth and Justice and Rights Promotion and Protection Centre were present. 

They said in a statement read by Hardley Muchele and Odhiambo Oyoko police reforms are non-negotiable and that the general perception about police is still negative.

 The officials said they want urgent vetting of all police officers as stipulated in the law.