Going forward, police officer recruitments will be done online, Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja told the Senate Committee on National Cohesion, Equal Opportunity and Regional Integration.
Speaking on Friday, the IG revealed that it was necessary to change the recruitment process to curb fraud cases reported during the process.
He was responding to a question by the committee on how the National Police Service was going to sensitise the public who turn up in thousands for the recruitment against being duped by fraudulent officials in fake police job promises.
"The numbers that turn up for these recruitments are actually overwhelming, because of the numerous cases of fraud, but this must stop, and the way we can stop this is by leveraging technology to close the fraud gaps," Kanja said.
In Kenya, police recruitment is mainly done physically, with candidates showing up at recruiting centres with the required documents for physical assessment.
However, the recruitment process is now set to undergo a major shift with the introduction of an online recruitment system. But how will the online recruitment work?
The National Police Service (NPS) will use the new Police Recruitment System, which was presented to the Inspector General by the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) CEO, Mr. Peter Leley, barely a week ago.
Candidates will apply through the system by submitting the required documents online. Only shortlisted candidates will then advance to the field for physical assessment.
This is different from the manual recruitment process, where all candidates gather in the field for document verification and physical assessment.
"The Police Recruitment System is an online tool that will be used by the police service during recruitment and is expected to significantly address challenges such as fraud and other malpractices, delays, inefficiencies, data capture errors, and duplication of information, among other shortcomings," the NPS revealed.
The Senate committee further noted that the workforce was dominated by one ethnic community. The IG stated that the new system will address ethnic dominance in the workforce, as it promotes uniformity and fairness.
"The automated system will help improve transparency and accountability during recruitment, reduce costs, enhance the applicant experience, enable secure reporting of fraud cases, and promote uniformity and fairness, among other benefits," Leley, who was present at the committee hearing, assured.
So far, the NPS has not conducted a national police recruitment in three years, with the IG blaming financial constraints as the reason for the delays.
