President Uhuru Kenyatta has nominated long-serving policeman Joseph Kipchirchir Boinet to the post of Inspector General of Police. He will replace immediate former IG David Kimaiyo.
Boinet is a career policeman who joined the intelligence service in 1998 and has two Master’s degrees, one in security management and another in diplomacy. Boinet has also recently completed a course in Security Policy Analysis from Australia.
Boinnet is a former police officer who returns to the same service. This will happen should his nomination be approved by the National Assembly. He left the police service to join NIS.
Boinnet served in the Kenyan missions in Harare and Rome as a desk officer. Later, he was seconded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Head of Protocol.
Boinet is a beneficiary of the Security Law Act 2014, which amended section 12 of the National Police Service Act. This section detailed the procedure of appointing the head of the police service.
Section 12 of the NPS Act mandated the NPSC with the appointment of the IG. However, the new law states; “The President shall, withing fourteen days after a vacancy occurs in the office of the Inspector-General, nominate a person for appointment as an Inspector -General and submit the name of the nominee to the National Assembly.”
It is, however, unclear as to whether the nominee will be taken through a vetting process by the Committee on Administration and National Security. Alternatively, the suitability may only be debated on floor of the House.
The office of the IG fell vacant after the immediate former holder David Kimaiyo resigned on December 2, citing personal reasons. Deputy IG Samuel Arachi has assumed the duties of the IG until a replacement is appointed. Kimaiyo has now been appointed the chairman of the Kenya Airports Authority.
Kimaiyo’s resignation came in the wake of the killing of over 60 people in Mandera by attackers believed to be members of the al Shabaab.
Along with Kimaiyo, the then Cabinet Secretary for the Interior and National Coordination Joseph Ole Lenku was relieved of his duties. He has since been replaced by former Kajiado Central MP Joseph Nkaissery. Nkaissery was sworn in by the President on December 19.
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