To improve the nation’s security system, President William Ruto has made several substantial reforms to Kenya’s law enforcement organizations.
Former GSU Commandant Douglas Kanja was named the new Deputy Inspector General of the Kenya Police Service by President Ruto on April 12.
Kanja was unveiled as the replacement of former DIG Edward Mbugua who retired in March.
Kanja, a career police officer, rose through the ranks within the GSU to take over as the commandant of the support unit. He was named the commandant of GSU in 2018.
Kanja emerged top after interviews by the National Police Service Commission last week.
Kanja is a specialist in firearms and has served as the Police Service Chief Armoury.
In 2019, he commanded GSU officers in a rescue mission following the Dusit2 Hotel attack.
The well-coordinated response by his team was widely praised. The first DIG under the 2010 constitution was Grace Kaindi in 2012, followed by Joel Kitili and Edward Mbugua.
He comes into office at a time when the service is facing a number of challenges, which he is familiar with.
They include poor working conditions, low salaries and poor morale.
As the DIG, the holder of the officer is the most powerful as he or she controls almost 70,000 personnel of the more than 100,000 officers under NPS.
The other personnel are in Administration Police Service and DCI.
The DIG KPS is in charge of all eight regional police commanders, 47 county commanders, formation commanders, Sub County Commanders, Officer Commanding Station (OCS) and all uniformed officers.
He also controls the General Service Unit, traffic department and Kenya Police College in Kiganjo.
The new holder of the office will come to office when the service is facing different forms of crisis including financial.
Outgoing Kiganjo Police Training Institute commandant Bruno Shioso is set to take over as the Director General of the Kenya Coast Guard Service.
The reshuffle also sees Munga Nyale replacing Shioso as Commandant of the Kiganjo Police Training Institute.
Additionally, Eliud Lagat has been appointed as the new Commandant of the General Service Unit (GSU).
Previously, Lagat was serving as the director of the investigations bureau at DCI headquarters.
In the changes, acting DIG Abdallah Komesha was appointed the new director of the DCI investigations bureau, replacing Langat.
