National Police Service Commission Inducts New Members, Quorum Attained

NAIROBI Kenya May 18 -The government will strengthen the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) to enable it perform its functions on transfers, disciplinary control and hearing of appeals effectively.

The Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service Felix Koskei has said the government was aware that he Commission has had a lot of challenges where its functions had been usurped and attendant budget assigned to other institutions that had no mandate on police matters.

“This had made it very difficult for the Commission to undertake its functions more so in recruitment and provision of medical cover for police officers,” he said.

Koskei in a speech read on his behalf by the Principal Administrative Secretary (PAS) Arthur Osiya during an introductory induction programme for the members of the NPSC and the Commission’s CEO also said the commission should bring in the DCI and the PAS of the NPS for effective performance of their mandate.

The commission now has all the required members, including distinguished public servants with diversity in competencies and experiences, who have been inducted and can now make independent decisions and ensure quorum and convene meetings as required by law.

The Chief of Staff said the commission had now full members, following the appointment of the CEO Peter Leley, the Deputy Inspector General of Kenya Police Service (KPS) Douglas Kanja and Edwin Cheluget.

Cheluget was appointed the Commissioner in charge of Appeals, Policy and Legal Affairs, replacing Commissioner Naphtaly Rono.

“It is believed that the introduction of the new members will go a long way in addressing these challenges. The process of delinking the Public Finance Management and Administration staff from the Public Service Commission to the NPSC will now be complete with a view to ensure compliance with the constitution,” he said.

 “The mix between uniformed and civilian commissioners, retired police officers and persons of status of high court judge was meant to bring a complementary mix of diversity and competencies,” he added.

He added that the joint undertaking of the seminar among all members of the Commission was meant to foster synergy, collaboration and team work in the Commission.

Induction programmes seek to assist new employees take up their duties with ease and with full knowledge of the prevailing legal and policy frameworks governing the respective institutions.

They also serve as an in-service training to already serving capacity building to already serving officers to bring them up to speed with emerging issues and new work methods.

The training endeavours to cover various aspects of leadership and governance including corporate governance, relevant policy and institutional frameworks, financial management and accountability, performance evaluation and strategic leadership among many others.