A damning report reveals how police officers are misused when they are deployed to protect Very Very Important Persons (VVIPs) in the country.
The report by the Ransley Task Force indicates that between 3,000 to 5,000 police officers deployed to protect people with very high rank and status are involved in none core police duties.
According to the report, some police officers are used as attendants, personal assistants, clerks, sentries, drivers, receptionists and even money escort services.
Others were found to be working as secretaries, guarding private premises of VIPs, bodyguards of senior police officers, domestic workers and VIP protection.
The report states that some officers were shockingly working as cooks, caterers and errand and shamba boys in VIP homes.
Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) tabled a report recently, which revealed that one out of every ten police officers is guarding government officials and elite political operatives.
IPOA, however, estimated that with the increase of the number of elected and senior government officials in 2013, the number of police officers deployed in these non-core duties doubled.
The authority intimated that it had discovered gross misuse of police resources, with some officers being used to run errands for VIPs and in some instances serving as escorts for their children to school or shopping.
Following these revelations, IPOA chairperson Ann Makori asked Parliament to legislate laws that will stipulate how police should be deployed to avoid incidents such as the delay to deploy security during the Garissa University attack.
“The best IPOA can do at the moment is make recommendations. However, without a law to guide how the police are deployed and to who the problem will persist,” Makori told Parliament.
