Outgoing DCI Director Ndegwa Muhoro (C), IGP Joseph Boinnet (R) and NPSC Chairman Johnston Kavuludi. [Photo|Courtesy]"UHURU PERSONALISING THE STATE TO PROTECT ILLEGITIMATE AUTHORITYLast week, Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta made changes to the Police Service, dropping Mr. Ndegwa Muhoro as Director of Criminal Investigations and appointing Mr. George Kinoti to the position in acting capacity.Mr. Kenyatta also dropped Mr. Joel Kitili and Samuel Arachi as Deputy Inspector General in charge of Kenya Police and Administration Police respectively, replacing them with Mr. Edward Njoroge Mbugua and Mr. Noor Gabow.Those changes were married with the partial naming of the Cabinet because Mr. Kenyatta did not want them to attract too much attention and scrutiny. Kenyatta knew he was acting against the spirit of the Constitution and trying to reintroduce through the backdoor what his mentors in KANU perfected years ago.It appears that the first agenda of the Jubilee regime in the New Year is to complete the undermining of the security sector reforms which the country badly needs in line with the Constitution of 2010.Uhuru Kenyatta has taken over the powers of the National Police Service Commission and the Independent Policing Oversight Authority. He is recruiting senior officers without reference to the institutions that are empowered by the Constitution to do the work.This is particularly worrying in light of the recent occurrences in which police cracked down mercilessly on protesters, killing several and maiming many. Mr. Kenyatta is looking for the next lot of officers who owe allegiance directly to him, to do the dirty work for him in the days ahead.And he has adopted the attitude that he has a right to act with impunity in the belief that he will never have to face Kenyans again, having usurped power through fraud and force.The open recruitment further paints to a pattern of systematic undermining of supposedly independent constitutional offices in a bid to cement dictatorship and resurrect personal rule.It is now clear that the acquisition of such dictatorial and personalized powers were the reason for the amendments to the police laws that Mr. Kenyatta vigorously pushed for in 2015 and which went against the spirit of the Constitution. He is determined to eliminate many of the safeguards created to discipline and professionalize the police force. Mr. Kenyatta is sneaking back the imperial presidency and the personal rule that caused so much pain to this country and which he knows Kenyans abhor and detest. The spirit of the Constitution and the mood of the people of Kenya is that the National Police Service and indeed all independent constitutional offices must remain independent particularly of the presidency and free from political interference.We do not hold any brief for any of the police officers who have been dropped. We equally have nothing against the officers appointed to replace them. We however feel firmly that the spirit of our hard won Constitution must be respected and that nobody must sneak back into the country the personalization of the State and its organs. Nobody must be allowed to replace processes and procedures with impulses and return the country to the era when public officers served at the pleasure of one man who followed no procedures in appointing or dismissing such officers.Aside from the dictates of the Constitution, the public is entitled to information on why public officers are being hired or fired. Was it because they had failed in their duties? Who identified the replacements? The appointments now mean the officers owe allegiance to the sole appointing authority, not the public.The trend Mr. Kenyatta is embarking on, other than going against the spirit of the Constitution, means there no longer exists any fair chance for all Kenyans to access high constitutional offices because the appointment procedure is getting personalized.Once it begins, it never stops. Soon, Mr. Kenyatta is moving into other independent offices, like that of the Director of Public Prosecutions and filling them with people appointed to do his bidding. We will resist this trend as one that continues the illegitimacy of the Jubilee regime and an attempt to make the State shield a man exercising illegitimate authority.We demand a proper recruitment process to fill positions in the police service and all other institutions where vacancies arise. Further, we ask the National Police Service Commission and the Independent Policing Oversight Authority to rise up to their constitutional mandates and start the recruitment process then recommend the proper candidates to the President and not the other way round. In the meantime the new appointments must be considered unlawful and their commands are illegal orders. We appeal to all independent institutions to equally rise up to their mandate and check Mr. Kenyatta’s emerging worst instincts.RT. HON. RAILA ODINGANASA LEADERJANUARY 9, 2018."

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