The Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti, stands to have more powers if new proposals sail through.
The proposals were tabled by the National Association of Retired Police Officers (NARPOK) on Monday, March 9, 2020.
As per a report by the Standard on Monday March 9, the group asked the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) Secretariat to scrap the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and replace it with the Kenya Bureau of Investigations (KBI) which would be an independent body.
This would be a departure from the status quo as the DCI is currently under the National Police Service.
Francis Sang, the Chairperson of NARPOK argued that it made little sense to keep DCI under the NPS since it handles 82% of the cases that are brought forward.
“There is nothing to suggest that the trend has changed." states Sang referring to the fact that the DCI handled 67, 942 of the 88, 268 cases brought to the NPS.
"Retaining the DCI within the National Police Service is plainly ill-informed,” Sang concluded.
As per the group's proposals the KBI would be under the National Security Council which would be directly answerable to Parliament.
The group of retired detectives argued that the changes would allow the KBI to have the independence that was befitting its mandate to maintain national peace and security.
NARPOK also asked for a constitutional amendment that would reflect the KBI's new status as the fourth national security organ.
Currently, Article 239 of the Constitution only recognises three organs: the Kenya Defence Forces, the National Intelligence Service and the National Police Service.
“Provide for consequential constitutional amendments to give effect to the proposed KBI. Insert a new article in the constitution to provide for the enactment of enabling legislation for operationalization of the KBI, " requested the association.
The group also lamented that one of the main challenges that the DCI faced was inadequate financial and logistic support.
“For instance, in the 2019-2020 financial year, the DCI was allocated Ksh 7.1 billion out of Ksh100 billion allocated to the National Police Service," it provided.
The group concluded that the KBI as envisioned would be designed to protect Kenyans from serious crimes through detection, investigations as well as offering advisory services on crime protection.
