- The Covid-19 pandemic has knocked many people out of their jobs
- This will fill the gap left for the past three years when the service failed to recruit new personnel.
Image: DOUGLAS OKIDDY
The National Police Service recruitment exercise scheduled for today is deemed the most challenging and crucial in many years.
Officials in the service said based on the number of people who have applied to be recruited as cadets, they expect thousands to turn up.
More than 30,000 applicants had logged to the National Police Service Commission portal by Thursday seeking to be recruited for the cadet’s 300 available positions.
The service seeks to recruit 4,700 other recruits to join the General Service Unit and Administration Police Service. This will fill the gap left for the past three years when the service failed to recruit new personnel.
“We anticipate many complaints because of the demand and the supply of the positions we have. This is a crucial exercise for us,” said an officer aware of the plans.
The Covid-19 pandemic has knocked many people out of their jobs and officials said the demand for the police positions will be higher as compared to the past drives.
The recruiting teams arrived at their stations yesterday ahead of today when the countrywide exercise takes place in all constituencies.
The Independent Policing Oversight Authority say they will monitor the recruitment drive.
Chairperson Anne Makori said the authority will be receiving complaints and compliments on the exercise.
“Given IPOA’s understanding that the work of professionalizing the police must start at the recruitment stage, the authority shall receive the complaints and compliments, analyse them and share its report with the National Police Service,” said Makori.
She added the authority will receive the complaints and compliments through its dedicated Call Centre Toll-Free Hotline 1559, which will be operational throughout the exercise from 0730hrs to 2000hrs.
The commission defended the decision to recruit 300 despite there being graduates serving as officers.
“We are looking for specialists in various fields and we also want to give those who are not police officers an opportunity to serve in the profession,” said commission chairman Eliud Kinuthia.
Kinuthia was responding to complaints by serving police officers that they have been discriminated against in the new recruitment by the move to recruit fresh graduate cadets when they are serving
The new recruits will be bonded for ten years. The new group is needed to fill gap left by thousands who have left the service.
This is because the service has in the past three years been losing close to 2,000 officers yearly through different means. The majority are resigning while others are on an increasing trend retiring.
Some are incapacitated by different work related hazards including injuries and diseases.
The service has been under pressure to increase the number of police stations in various parts of the country but they have not been able to due to financial constraints.
And when the president announced changes in the service in 2018, it forced some 24,000 APS officers to move to the Kenya Police. APS is now completely specialised on its core mandate that includes border patrols, guarding critical infrastructure and dealing with stock theft.
In GSU, there is need for younger officers to take part in operations that are in demand now. Most GSU personnel transit to the general duties when they reach certain age hence need to new recruits to fill the gap left.
This has led to a huge shortage in some units hence the need for recruitment to fill vacancies left.