President Uhuru Kenyatta has announced radical changes that will harmonize regular and Administration Police operations.
Under the new structure, the Administration Police will be merged with the Anti-Stock Theft Unit (ASTU) departments of Rural Border Patrol (RBPU) to form one unit responsible for border patrols with a majority of the AP officers set to be absorbed into the Kenya Police Service while the remaining officers will be tasked with providing security to government buildings and facilities.
Under the new structure, positions such as county or regional AP commander will be abolished and their holders redeployed to police stations to work alongside regular and DCI officers.
There shall be one Regional Police Commander known as the RPC with one County Police Commander known as CPC, a Sub-County Police Commander known as SPC and OCS/Ward Commander who will be in charge of the police station and environment.
The new look AP service will be lean as majority of the officers will be redeployed to the general duties under the command of Deputy IG. The position of DIG in charge of the AP and the top level command will remain intact.
The president also abolished police line housing and introduced housing allowance. Police officers living under line housing will have 90 days to vacate the premises and seek private tenancies and integrate themselves with the community they serve.
The Deputy Inspector General Administration Police will focus on border security and banditry while the Directorate of criminal investigation will focus on criminal investigation.
The president further has announced abolishment of various positions to avoid duplication of roles. The positions abolished include Regional commander Administration police, Regional commander Kenya police and the regional commander at the DCI, The county commander administration police, the county commander Kenya police service and the county commander at the DCI, the sub county commander Administration police, the sub county commander Kenya Police and the sub county commander at the DCI.
Other posts that have been abolished are the officer in charge of the police division (OCPD), the District administration police commander (DAPC) and the Administration police ward commander thus making the number of commanders to go down from the current 168 to 56 when the changes are implemented.
The president further announced a change of names for Police training schools to give them a national look. Kenya Police Training College has been renamed National Police College, Kiganjo Campus while the APTC was renamed National Police College, Embakasi A campus. The GSU College will now be known as National Police College Embakasi B campus.
The president also unveiled the new police uniform which are blue in colour.
