President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday announced reforms in the National Police Service giving the force a new command and delivery structure.
Here are the changes:
1. Merging Administration Police with the Kenya Police Service.
In the new changes, the 39,680 members of the Kenya Police service will be merged with 24,572 officers from the Administration police.
The two sides will now form a new unit called General Duty Police Service that will be headed by the Deputy Inspector General, Kenya Police.
2. Countering transnational Security threats
In a bid to combat cross-border security threats, the President announced that Rural Border Patrol Unit will now change to the Border Police Unit and its strength will double to 6,000 officers and it will be under the deputy IG in charge of Administration Police.
3. Renaming Training Colleges
Police service training colleges shall be rebranded and renamed. The colleges will now carry a uniform identity with a National Police Service touch.
Kenya Police College Kiganjo was renamed National Police College (NPC) Kiganjo Campus, AP Training College will now be called National Police College Embakasi A campus.
The GSU Training School will now be National Police College Embakasi B Campus. The Loresho training College has also been renamed to National Police College Senior Staff Loresho campus.
Other institutions renamed in the changes include the college in Emali where middle-level officers receive training. It shall be identified as the National Police Service College Emali while the Magadi college changes to NPS Magadi Field for Tactical GSU training.
4. Realigning the Office of the Inspector General of Police
The deputy IG (Kenya Police Service) will now focus on public safety and security while the deputy IG (Administration Police) will focus on protective and border security as well as combating cattle rustling.
The Director of Criminal Investigation will handle criminal investigations.
5 Chain of Command
In order to avoid duplication of roles and overlap in service delivery, the service shall have only one Regional Police Commander (RPC), a County Police Commander (CPC) and Sub-county Police Commanders.
The changes abolish the OCPD titles while the office of the OCS shall now have more responsibility as the service seeks to merge police posts and stations under their mandate throughout county wards.
6. Housing and Welfare
The president stated that the police officers shall now be eligible for house allowances after which they will have to vacate police lines and leased houses within 90 days upon receiving the dues.
Officers will be required to seek residential areas of their choice departing the practice of using the allocated houses most of which are shared and congested.
"The policy of mandatory and free housing for junior officers in institutional houses is hereby abolished. Instead, house allowance will be provided," divulged the Head of State.
Government shall set up shift quarters at every station and police posts separating male and female officers on duty.
"House allowances for all ranks will be provided and I direct the national treasury to initiate the termination of all leases of police estates within 90 days after the effective date of the new allowances.
"Officers will be required to enter into private tenancies with private property owners where they can live with other members of the general society," stated President Kenyatta.
7. New Training
The president Stated that the service shall offer refresher courses and training for the officers to facilitate proper understanding of the unified police service and help the general duty officers take up police station work effectively.
"We want to institute refresher training for all general duty police officers to instil a common understanding of police station work," announced Kenyatta.
He further indicated that the changes aimed at making service delivery more seamless and called for proper implementation of the reforms.
"I am proud to launch the policy framework and strategy for the re-organisation of the National Police Service. I believe it reflects the ambition I expect and that its recommendations will be implemented to completion," concluded the president.
8. New Uniform
The general duty officers will use new uniforms that are navy blue in colour. The uniform has the side of the arms donning the label “POLICE” while retaining the blue, yellow, red strips of the service.
