The National Police Service Commission (NPSC) on Thursday, October 1, approved a request by the Inspector General of Police (IG) to recruit 5000 Police Constables and 150 professional cadet police officers.
The approval was granted during a full commission meeting attended by all commissioners, PS Interior Karanja Kibicho and DCI Director George Kinoti.
The recruitment will seek to address a shortage of staff as there has not been any recruitment for the past two years.
The commission also set the minimum requirements for prospective recruits which has stood at D+ and above in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).
Kibicho in an earlier address stated that the police service was seeking university graduates in the first phase of recruitment.
He explained that part of the highly skilled manpower being targetted were engineers, doctors, IT experts, financial analysts, and pilots to help police solve highly sophisticated crimes.
Specialists, he added would join the force as inspectors, chief inspectors, assistant superintendents and superintendents.
Kibicho attributed the extrajudicial killings, corruption and other vices associated with police to low educational standards in the service.
On September 23, the NPSC issued guidelines to guide the promotion of over 3,500 police from the ranks of Constable to Chief Inspector.
A section of officers however, protested the new promotion rules terming them discriminatory.
Other officers complained of being sidelined despited going to class and having degrees.
In the new guidelines, officers are required to have passed at least two or three exams on police laws which are The Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, and the Evidence Act.
