Did Internal Security Minister George Saitoti mutilate and violate the constitution on matters touching on police when he he tabled only the National Police Service Bill 2011on Thursday last week? The Executive Director of the International Centre for policy and Conflict Ndung'u Wainainaand Security expert Simiyu Werunga think so.
According to Wainaina, Saitoti's move not only betrayed Kenyans but violates the constitution. He said what Saitoti has done is to deny Kenyans an independent, efficient and accountable police service that they have crave for over years. " What happened in parliament on Thursday evening is not what Kenyans voted for but a brutal manipulation of the constitution. The core mandate of the Police Service Commission is to appoint, recruit, promote and by including an amorphous selection panel in the National Police Service Bill to appoint the inspector general and his deputies, Saitoti is actually usurping the powers of the National Police Service Commission and handing it to the political elite," Wainaina said.
Supporting the view by Wainaina, Werunga said the minister had bound police service to political control instead of freeing police as envisaged in the constitution. The minister was required to table three and not one Bill. The three were the National Police Service Bill 2011, the complementary National Police Service Commission Bill 2011 and the Independent Oversight Authority Bill 2011.
The Bill approved by Parliament, National Police Service Bill 2011 says that the appointment of the Inspector General and his two deputy inspector generals will be done by a selection panel controlled by the political class. The stakeholders however wanted the procedure used when hiring other constitutional officer holders adopted.
By cunningly leaving out the other two Bills, Saitoti also got what the parliamentary committee on security led by the Mt Elgon MP FredKapondi had denied him only some days earlier. Saitoti had on Monday appealed to Kapondi-led committee not to subject the two deputy inspector generals who will be incharge of the Kenya Police Service and Administration Police Service to public vetting but was opposed by members of the Usalama Reforms Forum led by Philip Onguje and the Kenya National Commission for Human Rights Commissioner Omar Hassan Omar.
Saitoti had argued that the deputy inspector generals are too junior to be subjected to vetting although they will be in charge of the two main police units. Saitoti had also sought to include a polytechnic diploma as one of the qualification of holders of the office against stipulation by the constitution that requires only degree holders for the post.
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