Police stations lack money for their operational independence, EACC report says

There is a failure to allocate Authority to Incur Expenses (AIEs) to all police stations in the country, a report by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission says.

This has limited their operational independence.

There is also a non-allocation of independent AIEs to specialized and devolved units, constraining their operational capacity, delays in the disbursement of AIE, a lack of a comprehensive database for land parcels owned by the National Police Service, and a lack of ownership documents for the land owned by the police.

This, according to the report has led to informal arrangements to undertake official duties, where officers could solicit funds and services from clients, compromising transparency and fiscal discipline, exposes the NPS to legal suits for breach of contract and dispossession of land.

The commission wants police officials to ensure that all gazetted formations, Units, Components and Stations are issued with the AIEs to facilitate daily operation and ensure timely disbursement of AIEs to meet essential operational expenses.

There is a need for collaboration with relevant agencies to review land ownership status and ensure compliance with legal requirements and securing title deeds for all police station land through formalization, regularization, and proper registration.

EACC presented the Report of the Examination into the Systems, Policies, Procedures and Practices of Work of the National Police Service (NPS) Thursday November 13 2025 at the National Police Leadership Academy.

The report presented by EACC CEO Abdi Mohamud followed an examination conducted by the Commission between February 10, 2025 and June 13, 2025 supported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
(UNODC) under the programme for Legal Empowerment and Aid Delivery in Kenya, Phase II (PLEAD II), funded by the European Union (EU).

The specific objectives of the Systems Examination were to examine, identify and profile areas in the systems, policies, procedures, and practices of the National Police Service that may be susceptible to corruption, to assess compliance with policies, laws and regulations and industry standards and to provide appropriate advice on how to address the identified weaknesses to eradicate corruption and enhance service delivery in NPS.

The team studied the existing policies, guidelines, procedures and practices applied in the management and operations of the National Police Service, analyzed the adherence to policies, guidelines and procedures, ascertained the effectiveness of implemented systems in enhancing integrity in operations in the National Police Service and identified and profiled areas of weakness, loopholes and avenues for corruption.

The report found there is failure to involve user departments in procurement of key operational Equipment and lack of a conflict-of-interest register for tender evaluation committees.

It found out there is non-compliance to procedures for undertaking classified procurements, such as lack of
selection criteria for suppliers, failure to constitute special committees, and use of unregistered suppliers.

This leads to non-compliance with law and may result to increased costs, and fraud, non-adherence to the user specifications procurements of substandard works, goods and services and failure to achieve value for money.

The report wants full involvement of user departments in development of specifications, evaluations, inspections, and contract monitoring, in line with the law.

There is need to maintaining and operationalizing a conflict-of-interest register for all procurement processes and adherence to classified procurement procedures including supplier selection, item quantification, market surveys, and the establishment of special procurement committees, as outlined in the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Regulations, 2020.

On the National Police Reserve (NPR) the report found out there is lack of a framework to guide the engagement of the officers, lack of a formal promotion procedure for the NPR officers and restrictive engagement term limit for NPR officers to a single five-year term, risking loss of trained personnel, poor return on training investment, and increasing future recruitment costs.

This has led to nepotism and bribery in the recruitment process and may allow for political interference, lack of transparency, fairness and meritocracy in promotion of NPR officers and may expose the country to high security risks due to discharge of well-trained NPR officers.

There is also failure to obtain value for money spent on training of the police reservists, and will require recruitment expenses every five years.

EACC wants fast-tracking the development and operationalization of the National Police Reserve Policy and reviewing engagement terms for vetted NPR officers to retain trained capacity and ensure continuity.