NAIROBI: USALAMA REFORMS FORUM

Monday, April 18, 2011

Editor,

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Dear Sir/Madam,

REF: POLICE RECRUITMENT ON THE 27^TH APRIL, 2011

For the first time in the life of this coalition government, a national police recruitment exercise is set to be conducted after a moratorium recommended by the Ransley Task Force was lifted.

This recruitment exercise shall be an extra-ordinary one day, high stakes venture for the police and those involved in police reforms who want to reclaim the image, credibility and integrity of this critical service. It is the first event after the last general elections, the coming into being of a new constitution and the last event before the coming into being of the Police Service Commission which should be responsible for this recruitment exercise.

27^th April 2011 shall be like a general elections day in Kenya. In some 286 centers, tens of thousands of unemployed young Kenyans shall turn up for an event expected to take up only 7,000 people, out which slightly more than 2000 are expected to be women.

Candidates and observers will be keen to know whether numbers of persons to be selected in each centre shall be announced at the beginning of the exercise and the final list promptly declared at the end of this great day. It will also be of interest to know whether there are any mechanisms for addressing complaints immediately they arise and whether those selected shall certainly take up their place at the respective police training colleges. 

Usalama Reforms Forum, through a partnership arrangement with an array of partners at the community level, aims to deploy monitors to at least half of the recruitment centers countrywide.  Usalama has developed an easy to use monitoring tool that will be circulated to these partners across the country and the information will be reviewed through a “Police Recruitment Watch Center” that will be set up at the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights Offices in Nairobi.

We write to inquire whether your esteemed media house shall be involved in monitoring and reporting this crucial national event.  We shall be more than willing to share with you crucial details coming through our watch centre from the teams of monitors spread across the country. We are also available to share on strategic perspectives of this exercise should you have sessions or talk shows that seek to expound on this subject.

Sincerely Yours, 

Philip Onguje,

Coordinator

Notes:

The Usalama Reforms Forum is a collaborative initiative of national and international organization working in the field of security sector reforms in Kenya.

Key members of the Forum include the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative(New Delhi), Saferworld (UK), PeaceNet-Kenya, World Vision, the Socio Economic Rights Foundation, Research Triangle Africa, The East African Institute of Security Studies and the African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum(APCOF, Cape Town).

The Usalama Reforms Forum has had constructive engagements with formal police reform initiatives in Kenya among them the National Task Force on Police Reforms (Ransley Task Force); the Police Reforms Implementation committee (Naikuni committee) and the Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC).