Court Rules NPSC Has No Power to Recruit or Fire Police Officers
The Employment and Labour relations Court threw a major wrench into the planned national Police recruitment , ruling that the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) just doesn’t have the constitutional authority to hire or fire officers.
Handing down her verdict last Thursday, October 30, Justice Hellen Wasilwa came down hard on the NPSC, declaring the recruitment ‘ null and void’ , and saying that the real power to recruit and train police officers lies with the National Police Service (NPS) under the Inspector General.
She wrapped up her judgment with a blunt statement : “a declaration is being made that the recruitment by national security organs under Article 232 of the Constitution can only be done by the national security organ itself and not by any other entity outside of it.” She also issued a permanent injunction blocking the NPSC from moving forward with the recruitment or even related activities like an ad they ran in the Daily Nation
What really caught her attention, she said, was that if another body got to oversee recruitment or disciplinary actions , then it’d undermine the Inspector General’s independence . “the commission’s role is pretty limited , mainly to oversight and administrative stuff not operational duties ” she said.
The whole recruitment thing had been set to kick off back on the 3rd of October – only a public notice had gone out on September 19. But of course it got put on ice earlier this month when former MP John Harun Mwau filed a petition against Police IG Douglas Kanja and the NPSC, and basically said that with them at odds over the police payroll system , the recruitment just couldn’t happen
Justice Wasilwa’s decision now clears up a long-standing source of tension between the NPSC and NPS – who gets to make the hiring and firing decisions – and reaffirms that it’s the police service itself that gets to do that.
Also Read: Politicians Face Ksh1 Million Fine for Putting Faces on Roads
Court Rules NPSC Has No Power to Recruit or Fire Police Officers