The government initiated plans to purchase three new gunship helicopters in a Ksh20 billion plan to modernise the National Police Service, according to Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki, who appeared before the National Assembly on Wednesday, April 12,
Kindiki revealed that he would have acquired the equipment in three months and revived the police air wing.
According to the CS, this would enable the NPS to stop overdependence on the military, who he stated had other important roles across the border.
“I am happy to return here if the house requires so in three months because, by that time, I expect to have revived the police air wing, which is completely dead.
“I intend to have acquired at least three gunship helicopters for the National Police Service so that we stop depending on the military because they have a national duty to perform,” stated Kindiki.
He also noted that in the plan, the government would purchase unmanned armoured vehicles or drones.
“What this new administration has done is to give Ksh20 billion to revive the equipment modernisation programme, which will run for the next three years.
“I intend to acquire some unmanned armoured vehicles or drones and going forward to increase yield the benefits of technology-driven and intelligence-driven operations,” he noted.
The CS explained that the government resorted to uplifting the National Police Service(NPS) after a failed attempt at running the programme nine years ago.
“In 2014, the government started a police equipment modernisation programme which continued for three or four years but stopped after that.
“It was to the tune of Ksh10 billion a year and that really helped in the improvement of security at that time but due to the collapse of that funding programme, we have had issues with our ability to make Kenya safer,” he added.
Kindiki was responding to questions raised by members of the National Assembly on how he would fix the security gaps that were there in the NPS, especially in the bandit-prone areas where gunmen were reported on many occasions to have countered the officers deployed in the regions.
