IG Kanja ordered to hand over police payroll to NPSC

The National Police Service (NPS) has been ordered to hand over the police payroll and all human resource related functions to the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) with immediate effect.

In an attempt to heal perennial sibling rivalry between the two institutions, the Public Accounts committee chaired by Butere MP Tindi Mwale ordered Inspector General Douglas Kanja to hand over the payroll and allow the commission to perform its duties as per the Constitution.

"This committee orders you, the inspector General of Police, to hand over all the payroll and human resource functions to the commission immediately and not in one week. The Chief Executive Officer of the commission should also write back to this committee to confirm that he has received the functions. We want to make sure that the Constitution is followed to the letter,” stated Mwale.

IG Kanja was summoned to the committee following a report by the Auditor General that indicated that NPSC has not been able to perform its duties because it has been denied access to critical documents to enable it perform its constitutional roles.

Attempts by IG Kanja and accounting officer Bernice Lemedeket to claim that they have a warm working relationship with the commission were drowned by MPs who fingered them for not following the law and undermining the commission.

“We were delegated some functions, myself and the IG, to be the authorized officers so that is how we are working together, we are working together with our employer and we have no issues,” said Lemedeket.

The claims were condemned by members of the committee with each member calling out the National Police Service (NPS) and IG Kanja.

“The documents tabled here by the IG are not the payroll. Where is it? The commission is the employer of police. Why on earth would you want to deny the employer access to data in the payroll?” Posed Lugari MP Nabii Nabwera.

“I would wonder whether we should have IG be seated as an IG having contravened the Constitution and yet he wants the rest of Kenyans to follow the constitution,” charged Aldai MP Maranne Kiitany.

IG Kanja assured the committee that they would implement the orders given by the committee, with NPSC CEO Peter Lelei ordered to write to the committee to confirm whether the order has been actioned.