Over 3,600 Chief camps in Kenya will now be turned to modern police posts following the transfer of more than 23,000 Administration Police Service officers to the Kenya Police Service in mass changes.
The changes, which were announced by the National Police Service Board following a meeting on Wednesday last week, are in accordance with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive to merge police units last year.
The 23,900 officers will now be under sub-county commanders popularly known as Officers Commanding Police Division (OCPD).
All the affected officers were directed to return their jungle green uniforms to their respective commanders and be issued with the new blue one.
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Most of the APs, who remained, will now be in charge of the Critical Infrastructure Protection Unit (CPU).
“CIPU is mandated to protect electricity, banks, government buildings and installations, water points and cash in transit. Others are critical infrastructure and energy infrastructure,” Deputy Inspector General of APS Noor Gabow said while handing over the affected personnel’s instruments to his KPS counterpart Edward Mbugua.
In line with the reforms, all the country’s 1520 wards will have police stations which will be manned by Officer Commanding Station (OCS).
On the other hand, current constituencies will also have police divisions which will be served by sub-county police commanders formerly known as OCPDs as part of efforts to devolve services across Kenya.
This will allow all government services to be accessed from one post. The chief will be present and in case someone needs police attention they will be attended to, all in one place.
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The changes started with the restructuring of the police command structure.
To avoid overlapping of duties in the police service, the President assigned specific and distinct functions to the different police units.
The President announced the new command structure as follows: The regional police commander (RPC), the county police commander,(CPC), the sub-county police commander (SPC), and the officer in charge of the police station who are now in charge of the police station its wards and Patrol bases.
He announced that the Administration police will be organised in units and the rest integrated to perform the duties of the general duty police. These units include Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU), Border Police Unit (BPU), APS Stock theft prevention unit (APS- ASTU) under the command of the Deputy Inspector General Administration police.
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Parallel commanders in the APS, KPS and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) were collapsed.
They are Regional commander Administration police, Regional commander Kenya police and the regional commander at the DCI, The county commander administration police, the county commander Kenya police service and the county commander at the DCI, the sub-county commander Administration police, the sub-county commander Kenya Police and the sub-county commander at the DCI.
In the past, parallel commanders often made overall command challenging.
On the cost of implementing the changes, Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho said that should not be an issue as it will be a process and not an event.
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