Police Service Commission vice chair passes on

Esther Chui-Colombini        Photo:Courtesy

By CYRUS OMBATI

The Vice Chairperson of the National Police Service Commission Esther Chui-Colombini has passed on after a short illness.

Ms Colombini died at the MP Shah Hospital in Nairobi yesterday where she had been admitted since last Friday.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku announced the death yesterday at a meeting with senior police officers in Nairobi.

He led a minute of silence in her honour.

The commission said Colombini complained of pain in her left hip during a meeting before she was driven to the hospital.

“At the hospital, doctors advised that she be put to a bed rest and come Saturday we are informed her kidneys stopped to work and she was taken to the ICU. We were informed of her death this morning (yesterday),” said one of the commissioners who visited her before she died in the morning.

Commission Chairman Johnston Kavuludi led other commissioners in mourning Colombini and described her as a hardworking official whose work will be missed.

“We are shocked and cannot understand what happened. It is unfortunate,” he said.

No quorum

Her death puts the commission in a jeopardy given it now technically lacks a quorum to have regular meetings.

The commission quorum is usually five commissioners. One of the commissioners Major Muiu Mutia has been unwell since last year and has been unable to attend meetings.

And given Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo and his deputies Samuel Arachi (Administration Police) and Grace Kaindi (Regular) rarely attend the meetings, it would be difficult to transact business.

“As much as Kimaiyo and his deputies are commissioners, they do not attend some crucial meetings and her death is a blow to us at large given Mutia is incapacitated,” said another commissioner.

She was a former realtor in Santa Rosa, California, and was appointed as one of the commissioners to the NPSC by the former President Mwai Kibaki in October last year.

The other members of the commission include Kavuludi, Kimaiyo, Arachi, Kaindi, Mutia, Ronald Musengi, Murshid Mohamed and Mary Awuor.

Colombini is survived by her husband and two children, Agnes and Simon, aged 13 and 12 respectively who stay in the US.