There is confusion after the High Court declared President William Ruto’s move to establish the national taskforce to review police welfare unconstitutional.
Justice Lawrence Mugambi ruled on Thursday, April 10, that the President had violated the Constitution, and therefore, the 23-member task force headed by former Chief Justice David Maraga is unconstitutional, and any decision made by it is also unconstitutional, null, and void.
“The president has no constitutional authority to assign a specific responsibility to a commission that is not complementary but undermines the discharge of the independent commission’s mandate,” Justice Mugambi ruled.
The confusion came out because the service is already implementing some of the recommendations by the Maraga team.
There is a likelihood the government will appeal the ruling. The judge further said the President over stepped his decision and mandate, thus found it unconstitutional to the extent it divested the National Police its powers of functions as mandated by registration and the constitution.
Consequently, the judge ruled that the president erred in establishing the national taskforce on improvement terms of service and conditions of service of members of National Police and Kenya prison and conferring it roles that are the mandate of the police commission.
The case was filed by Nakuru-based medic Dr Magare Gikenyi who asked the court to declare unconstitutional the national taskforce to review police welfare.
The taskforce was established by Ruto in December last year. It was headed by Maraga and deputized by Caroleย Kariuki.
In the documents, Gikenyi said the work is constitutionally a mandate of the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) and not ‘politically and executive initiated taskforces.’ He wanted operations of the task force and the gazette notice that established it suspended.
“It is the NPSC that is supposed to establish the said task force and not the President. The President can establish any other task force but not the task force on independent commissions,” he argued.
He argued that the constitution does not envisage a situation where the President directs the working of an independent commission in this case the NPSC.
He termed the act of the President as unconstitutional saying there has been duplication of roles.
“One wonders why the Attorney General is establishing task force when we have the NPSC which is supposed to do the same work. This action is irregular and irrational, to say the least.”
It was his argument that the actions of the state will lead to outright abuse of political power and loss of public confidence.
Those sued were the AG, the national taskforce on the improvement of the terms and conditions of service and other reforms for members of the NPS and Kenya Prisons Service and the National Police Service Commission and former CJ Maraga were listed as interested parties in the case.
The National Taskforce on Improvement of Terms and Conditions of Service and other Reforms for Members of the National Police Service, National Youth Service and Kenya Prisons Service report was handed over in December 2023.
President Ruto revealed last year in September that the government will require Sh106 billion to implement the reforms within the National Police Service (NPS), Kenya Prisons Service (KPS) and National Youth Service (NYS).
Ruto made the remarks during the launch of the launch of the Strategic Framework for Implementation of reforms in the services.
The Framework provides an integrated approach to reform priorities in a strategic and coordinated manner to ensure coherence among reform institutions.
From all the police reform initiatives, this is the first that has a Strategic Framework for implementation developed by the relevant institutions.
The National Taskforce on Improvement of the Terms and Conditions of Service and other Reforms for the National Police Service (NPS), Kenya Prisons Service (KPS) and National Youth Service was appointed by Ruto on December 21, 2022.
The Taskforce was chaired by Maraga with its terms of reference were to identify the legal, policy, administrative, institutional and operational constraints on effective service delivery and to recommend solutions.
It was also to review the terms and conditions of service for the three Services and recommend their improvement.
Pursuant to this, the National Steering Committee chaired by the Principal Secretary, Internal Security and National Administration, Dr. Raymond Omollo was gazetted on September 13, 2024 and tasked to, among other key deliverables, develop an Implementation Framework to guide the reforms process.
Ruto said that the funds will be allocated to address key challenges that faced the services, career progression, digitization of records including police OBs and purchase of new equipment.
Out of the money, Sh22 billion will finance improvement in compensation package for officers while Sh37 billion will go to the upgrading of the hardware and welfare reforms and Sh45 billion is required to implement modernization of the services.
Ruto said the National Treasury will provided part of the funds while the rest will be catered for by investors.
“We appreciate the considerable financial implications of the full implementation of the changes prescribed by the Maraga taskforce. It is estimated that it will cost Sh106 billion to full actualise these recommendations,” he said.
A national inter-agency team was formed to guide and start the implementation process. The committee started its work with the unpacking of at least 200 recommendations contained in the report.
The committee finalized the guidelines that informed the implementation of the first phase. It singled out recommendations that could be implemented through administrative action without requiring funding.
In this phase, service charters of the three services were reviewed and service standards developed. โ Staff trainings and sensitizations focusing on the new service standards and far-reaching service delivery reforms have started, Omollo said.
The PS noted that the implementation of this phase of the reforms are at 65 per cent for NYS, 42 per cent for Kenya Prisons Service and 37 percent at NPS.
Consultations on the implementation of recommendations that require funding without policy or legislation are at an advanced stage. One such recommendation is on new basic salary scheme for the police, prisons and NYS officers.
The report identified specific issues such as political interference in NPS, corruption in employment and promotions, police training curriculum, an inadequate NPSC, the role of the Cabinet Secretary responsible for National Security and the structure of the Internal Affairs Unit (IAU) in the police.
While presenting the report, Maraga called for political goodwill in the implementation of the recommendations saying similar proposals were previously made but never implemented.
The team recommended the creation of โthe Disciplined and Security Services Sectorโ comprising the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), National Intelligence Service (NIS), NPS, KPS, and NYS as a separate budget sector.
The team recommended that the basic salary of the members of the three Services be raised by 40 percent at the lowest constable level with a decompression ratio, based on the current salary.
The implementation of the salaries has already started.
For non-uniformed members of NPS, given their work environment, the Taskforce recommended a new allowance to improve their terms and conditions of service.
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