A census of police officers has been ordered after fears that there are many “ghost” officers.
The audit was ordered by acting the deputy inspector-general of police, Mr Joel Kitili. It also seeks to justify the number of civilian staff working in the service.
There are allegations that phantom personalities draw salaries and allowances from public coffers every month, on the basis they are officers, yet they are unknown in police stations.
Sources indicated to the Sunday Nation that some officers, who have left the service over the years or those who have died, are never struck off the payroll.
An estimated 1,500 officers leave the service every year through death, retirement, desertion and resignation.
The task of counting the number of officers has been given to police divisional commanders.
“All officers of the service must undergo a physical headcount conducted by area OCPD. Formation commanders and heads of directorates to nominate an officer to conduct this exercise,” reads an internal memo.
It is signed by Mr Stanley Lamai, head of personnel at Vigilance House, the police headquarters.
The memo also directs the commanders to submit their nominal rolls in “soft and hard copies” by Monday.
Individual police officers are required to independently fill in a form and attach a colour photograph and send it to the headquarters.
The officers, according to the memo, must attach a copy of the certificate of appointment into the service and, in addition, all academic certificates. The memo is dated Monday last week.
A big number of “ghost” officers will be a big setback to Kenya’s ambition of having a police officer for every 400 citizens by February next year, because the country’s chief security officers could be relying on false statistics.
HISTORIC INITIATIVE
According to the available statistics, there are about 80,000 police officers in Kenya and in the event another 10,000 are inducted into service by next year as ordered by President Uhuru Kenyatta, the police to population ratio will be 1:430.
The United Nations recommendation is for police to population ratio to be 1:400 to guarantee effective law enforcement.
Besides the police headquarters, the National Police Service Commission maintains data on all officers.
The memo appears to be directed at the Regular Police and it is not clear if their counterparts in the Administration Police and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations will be affected by the headcount.
A majority of officers who spoke to the Sunday Nation appeared unaware of the impending headcount, but others said they had been ordered to be physically present at their stations.
This is the first time a headcount of police officers is being conducted.
The audit is part of a radical clean-up initiated by Inspector-General Joseph Boinnet since he was appointed last year.
The clean-up is also ongoing at the firearms licensing section, after it was discovered that criminal networks had infiltrated the registry and were issuing fake gun ownership licences.
TRANSFERS NULLIFIED
The personnel department, which is the custodian of officers’ records, is also under scrutiny after it was found that it was tainted with corruption, including allegations of officers paying bribes to influence transfers to deployments deemed lucrative.
For instance, the Sunday Nation established that the recent transfer of more than 300 inspectors and chief inspectors was cancelled just days after it had been announced, following claims of irregularities.
The office of the inspector-general nullified the transfers of the chief inspectors a day after the circular was released.
Mr Kitili declared the transfers null and void after revelations that the process was marred by bribery, tribalism and nepotism.
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