Headteachers at the 40th Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association
Conference in Mombasa on June 18, 2015. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NATION
MEDIA GROUP
The Inspector-General of Police has ruled out deploying police
officers in schools and universities, saying he lacks enough manpower to
man all institutions in the country.
Mr Joseph Boinnet instead advised teachers to hire guards with knowledge of security matters from private firms.
He cautioned teachers against hiring their untrained relatives as guards.
Mr
Boinnet also said that in future, those seeking employment in the
police force would have their school records scrutinised and asked
headteachers to cooperate with the police.
“When we
recruit officers from now on, we shall go (back to the time they spent
in school) and scrutinise their behaviour (records), character and many
other things in order to avoid recruiting criminals in our forces who
later give information or collaborate with terrorists and other
criminals,” he said.
IMPOSSIBLE TASKS
He
said deploying police officers in all nursery schools, the 7,000
secondary schools, 25,000 primary schools and universities would be an
impossible task.
“Having police officers stationed in
each school and institution in this country would mean closing all our
police stations in the country. You should instead try hiring security
officers from private firms.
"But I caution you to
hire knowledgeable people because I know some of you take relatives and
employ them as security guards, yet they are untrained,” Mr Boinnet told
the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association delegates gathered for
their annual conference in Mombasa on Friday.
The IG avoided the issue of teachers based in the northeastern region who have refused to go back to their work stations.
Around
1,400 teachers based in Garissa, Mandera and Wajir counties have vowed
not to go back to work, citing insecurity in the region.
A
bus attack in which 28 people, most of them teachers, were killed
sparked the row between the teachers and their employers, with teachers
unsuccessfully seeking transfers from the region.
“As
police we will give as much support as we can in terms of security, but
the other issue of teachers staying away from classrooms due to
insecurity will be sorted by the employer," said Mr Boinnet.
TAKING BRIBES
The IG also defended his officers, who have constantly been accused of taking bribes.
“I
have heard all kinds of solutions given to tackle bribe-taking police
officers, such as improving their pay, in-service training and so on,
but what I know is that a bribe is a two-way street, so as much as we
will arrest the police officer taking the bribe and even sending him
home for the same, we should later search for the giver of the bribe and
have him arrested too,” he said.
He reiterated that
the duty of securing institutions and indeed the country was the
obligation of ever citizen and that the community, teachers and nearby
police stations should guard them.
He told teachers to
teach students positive values such as patriotism, respect for life and
hard work in order to cultivate peaceful existence in schools.
Answering
questions from the audience about the Garissa University College attack
and insecurity in northeastern Kenya, the IG defended his officers,
saying they did “the best under those circumstances”.
TOOK EIGHT HOURS
“It
has variously been claimed that security forces took eight hours to
respond to the terror attack at Garissa University (College) but this is
(not true). The truth is that our forces moved in very fast and started
engaging the terrorists from 5am until 4pm”.
“It was
later realised that special forces had to be brought in to storm the
building because not every police officer has these special skills. That
is when the gang was subdued,” he said.
He commended the police, saying before the Garissa attack, nine other attacks had been foiled by the police.
“The
university attack was the tenth one, we had foiled nine others so, our
forces are silent heroes who do their work without making noise about
it,” he said.
He said officers are supposed respond
immediately when an incident is reported, adding that if they do not,
they would be disciplined.
He was reacting to a claim
by a teacher in Garissa that when one reports an incident to the police,
“you end up being grilled for at least three hours yourself. When the
officers finally go to the scene, the thugs have naturally disappeared”.
Mr
Boinett said the police force was undergoing major reforms, including
recruiting more personnel, acquiring modern sophisticated weapons, and
training in order to serve the population better.
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