Police Spokesperson Charles Owino Explains Challenge In Recruiting Officers With C Plus Grades

Police spokesperson Charles Owino has differed with Interior CS Fred Matiang’i on the qualification for recruitment into the police service.

Speaking to Citizen TV, Owino said there is need to recruit persons with lower grades because they will work in their assigned positions for longer periods.

According to the spokesperson, officers with C plus grades often advance their education and ask for promotions.

“We have a challenge when we employ every policeman with Grade C+ and above. They go back to school, get degrees & come back and ask for promotions. It is important we get officers who have C plain, C -, and D+,” he said.

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Last week, Matiang’i said the service should recruit officers with higher grades as he questioned its capacity to deal with complex crimes.

“This is why I have been fighting that we look at the cut-off point of the people we are admitting. Surely, if we are admitting you with a D plus then we are telling you to go to the complex science of analysing blood and preparing a document that the DPP is going to use in court to prove murder, are we serious honestly? Are we serious?” the CS posed.

He added: “That is why I am saying there are many things we can do. The time is here for us to face the reality to know that we are facing challenges that we must confront in a serious manner and… we need to start new capacities on law enforcement terrain so that when I give you a file, you will not say we have no competencies.”

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Matiang’i noted that Kiganjo Police Training College graduates are not qualified to deal with certain cases that the DPP might need help with.

“Let me be frank and I am not besmirching you my brother, the capacities we need are not there because we cannot hope that the constables we have trained in Kiganjo are the ones who are going to deal with the complexities we are discussing to help the DPP deal with a rape case.”

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