What Kanja should do to give Kenya a world-class police service

Police during a past pass out parade. [File, Standard]

The nation recently united in congratulating Douglas Kanja on his appointment as the new Inspector General (IG) of Kenya Police Service. Following his successful interviewing and vetting, he assumed office as the 4th Inspector General under the 2010 Constitution and the 14th police boss since Kenya attained independence in 1963.

Now, with Kenya modernising and with changing security challenges, Kanja is expected to do what others have attempted to do but few have accomplished: Break the cartels that have dogged the police service. His predecessors, like Commissioner Hussein Ali and Edwin Nyaseda or the second Inspector-General Joseph Boinett, initiated reforms that had placed the police on a path toward ridding themselves of corruption and inefficiency but the efforts stopped short of transformation. The famous "Tonje Rules" transformed the Kenya Defence Forces, while Boinett is credited with transforming the National Intelligence Service (NPS). Now it is Kanja's turn to leave a similar legacy.