The Kenya National Police Service has announced 7,000 vacancies
for recruits as it moves to beef up the capacity of law enforcement
officers in the run-up to the March General Election.
This will be the second batch of recruits that
will be trained under the new curriculum which increased the course
period from nine to 15 months and raised the entry bar for those seeking
to join the service.
The employer, the newly-established National
Police Service Commission, says 4,000 of the successful applicants would
be posted to the Kenya Police and the others to the Administration
Police.
“The National Police Service Commission seeks to
recruit suitable and qualified candidates who satisfy the provision of
the Constitution, the enabling Acts and the additional criteria to be
trained as Police Constables,” said Johnston Kavuludi, the chairperson
of NPSC.
The recruitment is expected to boost the
police-population ratio and enhance the officers’ capacity to deal with
security challenges emerging from Kenya’s continued engagement in
Somalia and tensions surrounding the General Election set for March 4.
The recruits will be selected on November 22 at
district centres, according to a public notice published in Wednesday's
Daily Nation.
More than 200 people have died since the beginning
of the year because of inter-ethnic conflicts a result of competition
for scarce resources and robbery in major urban areas.
In September, about 118 people were killed and a
further 13,500 displaced in clashes between the Orma and Pokomo
communities in Tana River County.
On Monday, a cattle raid in Samburu left 13 people dead following heavy clashes between the residents and the rustlers.
The recruits will graduate with a Diploma in
Policing Science after the 15-month drill except for a tenth of them who
will be taken through a six-month leadership and management training
to qualify as inspectors.
Kenya has about 70,000 law enforcers, translating
to a police- to-population ratio of 1:551 against the United Nations
optimal ratio of 1:400.
This means there would still be a shortfall of about 19,500 police officers after the recruitment.
The forthcoming poll is expected to strain the
service further with each of the 40,000 polling centres expected to be
manned by two police officers.
more of the story at businessdailyafrica.com
more of the story at businessdailyafrica.com