Change of Guard: Bruno Shioso appointed new police spokesperson replacing Charles Owino

NAIROBI,Kenya, Aug 17 – The National Police Service (NPS) has appointed Bruno Shioso as the new police spokesperson replacing long term spokesperson Charles Owino who was appointed the Deputy Director of Kenya National Focal Point on Small Arms and Light Weapons in May.

Owino had earlier expressed interest in battling for the Siaya Gubernatorial seat in 2022. 

He is expected to retire from the police service in December, after more than two decades in the service.

The office of police spokesperson has remained vacant for nearly three months.

Meanwhile, Shioso, a career police officer previously served at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York, United States of America as a security attaché.

He was also at one point, the deputy director of the Banking Fraud Investigations Unit (BFIU) at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, (DCI). 

While at the the DCI, Shioso also served as the longtime personal assistant to former DCI boss Ndegwa Muhoro.

During the Garissa University attack under former Head of Operations at the DCI Mohammed Amin, Shioso was part of a special team of investigators that included Ngatia Iregi, Lydia Ligami and Jason Mworia who were tasked by the former Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet to establish the series of events leading to the attack despite there being intelligence reports of a pending attack by Al-Shabaab militants.

As part of the team, he was also tasked with conducting investigations in order to determine whether there was a case of possible criminal negligence on the part of nine senior police commanders in Garissa county before the attack.

Shioso appointment as police spokesperson comes at a time the relationship between the police and civilians remains strained and at an all time low, as a result of numerous recorded cases of police brutality, extrajudicial killing among many other human rights violations.

As the country approaches an electioneering period, the new spokesperson will no doubt play an integral role in managing the country’s security while coordinating security efforts in enforcing law and order.