Think on it: in how many nations have you seen the spectacle of men and women refusing to retire from their police jobs? Where in the world do you find policemen holding on to their public service offices with the tenacity of an anaconda wrapped around a fatted calf?
When it was the vetting and its unsavory revelations, I figured that these people simply didn't want to have to really work for a living. But with the kaa ngumu move by the Deputy Inspector-General over her "redeployment" to the diplomatic corps, you have to wonder: who in their right minds want to remain a cop beyond all reason? And why?
Maybe I should think on it from the other end: why is there a spirited movement to move DI-G Grace Kaindi from her perch in the Kenya Police? Where is there an equally determined counter-movement to ensure that she stays put? If it has anything to do with procurement in the police service, you have to ask: just how much money is sloshing around the Kenya Police?
In India, in the 1990s, if you wanted a plum police assignment, you paid a bribe to be transferred. In Kenya, in 2014, if you wanted to be a cop, you bribed to be recruited. One desperate father sold his land for pretty penny, and paid the necessary bribes. He got stiffed because some other father paid a bigger bribe. He had a heart attack from the shock of it all and died. He couldn't believe that policemen could be so dishonest. The irony completely escaped him.
We must ask hard questions. Is Ms Kaindi eligible for retirement? If yes, then she has no choice but to pack it in. If no, why is the rumour being broadcast that she is ready for retirement? Second, are her troubles connected with the procurement of police equipment, rumoured to be worth twelve billion shillings? If yes, is it from the suppliers' side where someone would like to deliver sub-standard equipment, or would like to deliver less than the procured amount? If no, why is the police re-equipment being played up in the newsmedia?
Third, why does the President have special advisors if all they can do when it comes to the police is to drop him in it each and every time. They botched the defy-the-High-Court thing at the beginning of the year over the suspended police recruitment. They dumped him in the poo over the police housing scheme and police insurance plan. Now they have dragged him into this saga over Ms Kaindi. Who is advising The Boss over the police?
Whatever is going on, Ms Kaindi has become the centrepiece in yet another embarrassing moment for the Commander-in-Chief. When your Commander-in-Chief commands you to do something, never mind the blandishments that other lesser authorities may have offered you, you obey. You follow orders. You redeploy, even if redeployment is to man your kitchen for the rest of time. You do not defy your Commander-in -Chief and demand "a letter of deployment." This is getting out of hand. The Boss is becoming a laughing stock.
This is not the first time things are going all pear-shaped. His own Parliamentary Party, not the alliance Parliamentary Party, but his own, defied him and went to town about how unfair it was that they had to pay taxes on all their pay and allowances. They bitched so loudly that they got their way: they got a pay rise to cover the difference. Then he went to them and asked them to give him a new Secretary to his Cabinet. They shit on the poor girl because she wrote them a mean letter. Then he asked them to stop fucking around with the EACC. They ignored him and not only shit all over the Commissioners, they decided to take a collective dump over its secretariat too. Now he is being defied by an uppity policeman! When will it end?
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