Africa-Press – Kenya. Nairobi City County government is pushing to operationalise the County Policing Authority in an attempt to arrest the insecurity in the capital.
Governor Johnson Sakaja on Thursday told the Star he had through the County Public Service Board moved to operationalise the provisions of Section 41 of the National Police Service Act, which establishes the authority.
“This authority is provided for by Section 41 of the National Police Service Act but it has never been brought to life, and in Nairobi you need that especially a metropolitan kind of force. So we’re working on that,” Sakaja said.
The authority’s main role is to coordinate and strengthen county-level security functions and promote community policing.
It develops proposals on priorities for police performance in the county, monitors trends and patterns of crime in the county and evaluates progress and achievement of set targets.
It also should provide oversight of the budget of the funds of the county policing authority, give feedback on performance of the police service at the county level and provide a platform the public can participate in county policing.
The authority is chaired by the governor and draws membership from the NIS county representatives appointed by the IG from the National Police Service and the DCI at the county level.
Also in the team are two elected members nominated by the county assembly, the chairperson of the county security committee and at least six other members appointed by the governor from among women, persons with special needs, religious organisations and the youth categories.
The formation of the authority across the country has, however, been delayed since the passage of the law and despite President William Ruto directing its operationalisation in January 2023.
“We shall operationalise the County Policing Authority for county governments to join the national government in dealing with security matters in each county,” President Ruto said during the 49th passing out of GSU parade in Embakasi.
In November 2022, Sakaja and then Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome announced they had agreed to form the authority but the same is yet to happen.
Recent insecurity reports in Nairobi highlight a spike in cases of mugging, theft, and armed robberies, particularly in the Central Business District, where thugs have attacked residents in broad daylight.
Sakaja said many of the reports have reduced drastically since they conducted an operation that exposed the infiltration of the city lighting infrastructure to bring in criminals.
“What we are doing is restoring the lighting that is vandalised, which is driven by criminal elements because we want a vibrant city. We are monitoring it [the situation] together with the regional police commander [George] Seda, OCPD central and county commissioner [David] Wanyonyi. So it is work in progress and in as much as their role, we play a facilitative role as a county,” Sakaja said.
The county has also asked the police to increase patrols and beef-up the anti-vandalism unit by having armed officers.
“Some of our officers were attacked and stabbed as the they tried stopping those vandalising lights on Outering Road,” he said.
Meanwhile, the governor termed his recent impeachment push as water under the bridge, saying they had agreed to work together in addressing the various challenges in the city.
“Every leader must listen to the people he or she works for. They [MCAs] have a lot of pressure from the ground so do we. We’re keen on delivering. That’s what we said, let’s look for resources together. Let’s make sure that our children have access to bursaries and infrastructure is sorted out based on the revenue we have,” he said.
“That is a normal pressure that is always there. But now we’re forging forward together as one.”
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