Kibicho to Raise Entry Grades for New Police Recruits

Kenyan policemen take position during an operation in the Nairobi slum, on October 28, 2017
Kenyan policemen take position during an operation in the Nairobi slum, on October 28, 2017
File

Interior PS Karanja Kibicho has disclosed the new reforms being made in the National Police Service, with plans to raise entry grades for recruitment of police officers.

Kibicho, in an interview with a local radio station on Thursday, June 4, detailed that the docket was targeting over 5,000 university graduates in the first phase of recruitment. 

This is part of a change to brand the service from being dubbed as a centre for failures in national examinations.

Interior PS Karanja Kibicho addresses a summit in Mombasa on January 13, 2020.
Interior PS Karanja Kibicho addresses a summit in Mombasa on January 13, 2020.
File

"Modalities have already been put in place to change the service from being the place where parents take their children who have failed in national examinations.

"In the next recruitment, half of the recruits shall be cadets. We must move to change our recruitment procedure and the training curriculum in order to conform with the international standards," Kibicho stated.

The minimum entry grade into the police service is D+ and above in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). 

Kibicho attributed the extrajudicial killings, corruption and all sorts of vices police are involved in, to low educational standards in the service.

The new reforms are part of changes proposed by former Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet who recommended the force to recruit highly skilled manpower, the construction of up to 83,269 new houses for police officers and the implementation of a new curriculum to harmonise training of regular and administration police officers.

Part of the highly skilled manpower being targetted are engineers, doctors, IT experts, financial analysts, and pilots to help police solve highly sophisticated crimes.

Specialists will join the force as inspectors, chief inspectors, assistant superintendents and superintendents.

The police service has been numerously condemned extrajudicial killings and corruption with the latest seeing Independent Policing and Oversight Authority (IPOA) recommending murder and assault charges for six officers.

The Kenyatta University main gate in Kiambu County.
The Kenyatta University main gate in Kiambu County.
File
  • . . .