Nipate
Forum => Kenya Discussion => Topic started by: Omollo on October 09, 2015, 02:09:13 PM
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Uproar has greeted disclosures that President Uhuru Kenyatta is seeking to control the police and its oversight wing through a proposed law.
The Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendment Bill) 2015, set to be tabled in the National Assembly, gives Uhuru sweeping powers to hire and fire the police chiefs and even the Independent Police Oversight Authority chair and its members without a tribunal.
The current legislation provides a long-drawn-out procedure for the removal of the IPOA top brass to guarantee the authority’s independence.
IPOA was created after the 2007/2008 bloodletting, following police brutality that landed then top cop Hussein Ali at The Hague.
These details emerged amid claims that the President is seeking absolute control of the country's security apparatus ahead of the 2017 polls.
The Bill, spearheaded by National Assembly Majority leader Aden Duale, also proposes that the President can retire or redeploy a deputy inspector-general as well as the director of criminal investigations.
“The President may, at any time, remove, retire or redeploy a director of criminal investigations before the director of criminal investigations attains the age of retirement,” the proposed amendments states.
Currently, only the National Police Service Commission has the powers to sack police chiefs, with the approval of Parliament.
The proposals also make it mandatory that a police officer shall be the Secretary to the County Policing Authority, removing the post from governors’ control.
According to the current Police Service Act, the Secretary to the County Policing Authority must be a civilian based in a governor’s office.
A source within IPOA yesterday regretted that Jubilee was killing the Police Service’s accountability institution as the country heads to the polls in 2017.
“If IPOA’s independence that is supposed to hold the police to account is subject to the President’s mercy, then where are we heading as a country?” our source, who did not want to be named, said.
Cord MPs who spoke to the Star termed Uhuru's move as unconstitutional, alleging that it is an early plot to control the police ahead of the 2017 polls.
Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma claimed that Uhuru wants the entire security apparatus to be at his disposal.
“You only take the direction that the President has taken if you are facing a civilian threat. It’s a strategy to remain in office by force,” Kaluma alleged.
- See more at: http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/kenyatta-wants-power-easily-sack-ipoa-board#sthash.oE5MD6H4.dpuf
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Another Moi?
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Isn't it already that way? The police seem to be waiting for their cue from the state house occupant whenever he sobers up. I think 2017 election is a foregone conclusion. If CORD does not win big, they wont be allowed to win. If there is voter apathy then it would not even be necessary for the chicken-tainted IEBC to engage in funny maneuvers.