Looming operational changes could hit the National Police Service - NPS soon if Deputy president Rigathi Gachagua's remarks on Thursday, September 15 are anything to go by.
Speaking during the Council of Governors (CoG) conference in Mombasa, Gachagua noted that the government is aware of the intimidation that governors and other government officials go through at the hand of detectives.
"We are aware of the harassment and intimidation that governors undergo through state agencies. The level of extortion by detectives pretending to be fighting graft, whereas they were extorting money. We assure you this is a thing of the past," he declared.
The second in command echoed his campaign promise to the police service to achieve autonomy.
The former Mathira MP clarified that the new directives will not hinder the Ruto-Gachagua administration to fight corruption.
"We are not saying we don't fight graft, but when you embarrass an elected leader in front of his juniors and you go away, how do you expect him to perform the next day?" the leader questioned.
He accused the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) of creating a toxic environment hindering service delivery in the country.
"We have told DCI to go back to Kiambu road, they have no business in government offices hovering all over and creating a toxic environment. They cannot send a junior police officer to harass an elected governor," Gachagua stated.
The former Mathira Member of Parliament reminisced on his days as a civil servant. He opined that then, things worked properly, only gazetted officers could interrogate gazetted officers.
Gachagua promised to regain the dignity of leaders in the new administration.
"You are lucky that the Deputy President is a man who has been harassed. we have agreed with the president, the harassment we went through was probably all God's doing so that we can never allow anyone else to go through the same," Gachagua remarked.
He called upon governors and other leaders to put their political differences aside to ensure devolution works to better the lives of Kenyans.
In July, Gachagua made headlines after he was ordered by the High Court Anti-Corruption division to relinquish Ksh202 million to the government.
