Sacked police officers appeal decision to dismiss them from force

More than 50 senior police officers sacked during their vetting exercise have appealed the decision.

The officers want their employer, the National Police Service Commission (NPSC), to review their cases arguing that there were anomalies in their sacking verdicts.

They made the appeals through letters sent to the commission. The commission will now set up an appeals teams to review the cases.

Commission Chairman Johnston Kavuludi said they were ready to listen to the appeals.

"It is their right to appeal, and we will act accordingly. We will make our decisions depending on the adduced evidence," he said.

This came as a team of senior officers popularly known as Board One proposed several names to replace the sacked officers.

The team met on Friday and made the proposal to the commission, which will consider and approve, reject or reallocate some of them depending on various factors that include regional balance.

The officers also proposed several promotions to be considered by the commission. The commission is set to receive the names today and make a decision later on.

When the commission announced the sacking of the officers, it noted that the officers were involved in corruption, violation of human rights, human trafficking, unprofessional conduct and forgery of academic certificates.

Other reasons included engaging in criminal activities, obstructing the course of the criminal justice system, submission of fake bank statements and M-Pesa statements and failure to submit documents or information required by the commission.

For instance, an OCPD was found to have M-Pesa transactions worth Sh7.7 million within 17 months with another constable at a weighbridge having collected Sh3.1 million in three months.

Some 1,364 officers were vetted in an exercise that took 14 months.

The vetted officers held the ranks of senior superintendents, superintendents and assistant superintendents.

The process, which began in June 2014 saw 1,272 officers cleared with 29 cases still pending. Of the 63 sacked officers, 32 are of the rank of senior superintendents of police, 28 are superintendents of police while three are assistant senior superintendents of police.

The 29 pending cases are to be completed by next Friday.

Mr Kavuludi had said the officers were to be vetted on the basis of their formations and functions as opposed to the current rank-based approach.

He further noted that the vetting had unearthed a pool of talent and professionals within the police service, including engineers.