Kimaiyo reshuffles senior police officers

By Cyrus Ombati

NAIROBI, KENYA: Sixteen senior police officers including Coast Regional police coordinator Aggrey Adoli were moved in changes made by the National Police Service Commission.

Among them are 14 Officer Commanding Police Division (OCPDs) who were shuffled to check cases of insecurity.

Adoli was named the director of a newly created Kenya Police Reserve and Community Policing. He replaces Ms Beatrice Nduta who has been moved to the directorate of Logistics at police headquarters, Nairobi.

Former director of logistics Julius Kanampiu was moved to the office of Inspector General. In the changes, Ndhiwa OCPD Smolletts Munyianzi was moved to Eldoret West in the same capacity while Kisauni OCPD Julius Njoroge was sent to traffic headquarters.

Head of traffic’s axle load George Njoroge is the new Ndhiwa OCPD while Laikipia OCPD Fransio Nyamatari was transferred to police headquarters operations department.

The changes released Thursday morning also saw the deputy head of Dadaab police operations Patrick Okeri moved to Laikipia West as the OCPD while Laikpia East’s Marius Tum was transferred to Vigilance House personnel section.

Mr Isaac Kegode is the new OCPD for Laikipia East while Mr Ndungu Waikonya has been moved from Eldoret West to Kenya Police College in Kiganjo.

Mr Richard Ngatia who has been an instructor at Kiganjo is now the new OCPD for Kiasauni while Patrick Onsando will be the division commander for Nyando.

The other deputy division commanders named include Joseph Chirchir (Diplomatic), Joseph Onyango (Samburu East), Wilson Makokha (Muhoroni) and Linus Okwara (Pokot).

The move to name Adoli to the new directorate indicates plans to revive the Kenya Police Reserve that was disbanded in 2004 by then police boss Hussein Ali.

This was after it emerged the unit in urban areas had become corrupt and unmanageable.

The Kenya Police Reserve (KPR) was formed in 1948 to assist the regular Kenya Police in the maintenance of law and order.  

The KPR now only exists in rural areas of Kenya, where it is sometimes called the Kenya Home Guard. 

There are proposals to revamp it and make it more active and responsive with clear command structure and records of the personnel.

It will now ensure it incorporates the media in rolling out its mandates, officials said.

During the vetting process, Ms Nduta blamed senior officers for failure to adopt and use the community policing concept despite having been trained.

“It is only Lari and Kikuyu police stations that have managed to drive this concept. We have trained all these commanders but we cannot see any change,” she said. She suggested that strict supervision would help drive the agenda.