Scaling down VIP protection officers will enhance security in the country, says Matiang’i

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Interior CS Fred Matiang'i./FILE

Nairobi, KENYA: Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr. Fred Matiang’i has defended the directive by the government to scale down VIP protection attached to top government officials as healthy and a good move for the country.

Speaking on Monday in Nairobi during the handing over of the end report of board of Independent Police Oversight Authority, Matiang’i said that there is need to mobilize security resources effectively across the country.

He pointed that scaling down the VIP officers will be useful in other jurisdictions across the country.

Matiang’i said that the security docket has challenges which must be tackled diligently for stabilization of the country.

“We have to rationalize on how we deploy our police resources, in our country, a country of ours size and the needs that we have ,cannot afford to have the things that we do .” Matiang’i said.

“There is no county government official anywhere in the country who needs 26 police officers to guard him, there is no one governor or any other people, we can’t move a police station to your office.” He added.

The chair of IPOA Macharia Njeru said that as per their report of six years,it emerged that 45.1 percent Kenyans complaints were about abuse of office ,police harassment 18.1 percent , incidents related to police killings 3 percent, 13 percent general misconduct and 0.4 sexual harassment .

He recommended that there is need for the government to strengthen the issue of police management for the smooth running of the service.

“Majority of police commanders do not have management and leadership skills that impact negatively on the management of police service .” Njeru said.

Macharia said 752 investigations were conclusively done by their investigators, 810 police units premises were investigated, 151 police operations were monitored, 164 recommendations were handed over to the government while 64 pending in court and 3 convictions upheld.

The term of the board of IPOA came to an end after being operational for 6 years .

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