Attorney General backs Kanja in Sh60b payroll power struggle

Attorney General Dorcas Oduor has backed Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja in his fight with the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) over the Sh60 billion police payroll.

Kanja, who heads the National Police Service (NPS), has been at loggerheads with the commission, he sits in, over handing over the payroll and other functions.

In their argument NPSC, which is chaired by Dr Amani Yudo Komora, say that payroll is a human resource issue that should be under them while Kanja has argued that it is an operations issue that should be handled by him.

NPSC is made up of civilians of former officers; Kanja sits in the commission alongside his deputies Gilbert Masengeli and Eliud Lagat as well as Director of Criminal Investigations Mohamed Amin.

Oduor’s decision to back Kanja was revealed in submissions by State Counsel Jackline Kiramana in a withdrawn case that had been filed by lawyer Shadrack Wambui and lobby group Sheria Mtaani.

In the case Wambui had sued IG Kanja, NPS, AG with NPSC and the Law Society of Kenya as interested parties. In her response to the petition, Kiramana said that Wambui and Sheria Mtaani were misrepresenting the law.

“No provision in the Constitution expressly assigns payroll management or financial administration to the Commission. The Commission’s role is to set policy on human resources, not to handle the day-to-day financial ledger of the police.”

Kiramana added that payroll administration underpins promotions, transfers, and discipline, all areas constitutionally protected as the domain of IG under Article 245(2)(b).

“Displacing the IG’s control of payroll would upset the balance of authority and compromise the chain of command within the Service,” she argued.

Wambui had stated that, payroll management should be part of NPSC’s human resource mandate and it had the right to determine how much police earnings in remuneration and benefits.

“The public confrontation between these two constitutional offices has caused uncertainty, disruption, and potential violations affecting governance of the National Police Service and poses a national security risk,” said Wambui.

He argued that the law does not vest the IG with powers to manage the payroll or extend his independence to NPSC. “To allow the Inspector General hoard or control payroll would place a constitutionally independent function under the control of an office that is, by design, subject to different constitutional constraints.”

In the withdrawn case the lawyer argued that the drafters of the constitution envisioned an independent body from the police to ensure fairness adding that there was risk if an office holder was to decide whom to promote, fire or demote.

He had sought the court to find that the IG’s operational independence does not cover the payroll which should be NPSC’s function including recruitment, appointment, promotion, transfer and disciplining police officers.

The fight between NPS and NPSC is not only about the control of the Sh60 billion payroll but it also includes hiring, salaries, promotion, transfer and discipline of the officers.

On one hand, NPSC argued that how can it be in control of police officers without controlling their pay while Kanja argues that this falls under operations which are among roles assigned to the IG’s office by the constitution.

The rivalry between the two played out openly when they were before the Budget committee of the National Assembly to present their budget estimates for the 25/26 financial year.

NPS and NPSC would later be summoned to Parliament on different days where NPSC said that they need full control NPS by having IG Kanja relinquish some of the powers and roles to them.

Kanja promised the Constitutional Implementation and Oversight Committee, chaired by Suba South MP Caroli Omondi, that he would hand over the payroll to NPSC.

But this did not happen leading to summons by the committee to which he responded, asking for more time to comply. Kanja just like his predecessors stood firm fighting for what was seen as the independence of the NPS.