Two weeks ago, Uhuru Kenyatta made changes to the Police Service, dropping Ndegwa Muhoro as Director of Criminal Investigations and appointing George Kinoti to the position in an acting capacity.
Kenyatta also dropped Joel Kitili and Samuel Arachi as Deputy Inspectors General in charge of the Kenya Police and Administration Police, respectively, replacing them with Edward Njoroge Mbugua and Noor Gabow.
Those changes were married with the partial naming of the Cabinet because 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 that 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.
This is particularly worrying in light of the recent occurrences in which police cracked down mercilessly on protesters, killing and maiming many.
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 points to a pattern of systematic undermining of supposedly independent constitutional offices in a bid to cement dictatorship and resurrect personal rule.
He is determined to eliminate many of the safeguards created to discipline and professionalize the police force.
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.
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 Kenyatta’s emerging worst
instincts.
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