Nairobi — Over 1,000 recruits admitted to the Administration Police Training College in Embakasi, Nairobi, have been sent home.

This follows an exclusive expose by The Standard last week that detailed how the exercise was steeped in canvassing, bribery and nepotism. Reports indicate that the recruits were driven out of the compound on Wednesday after being informed that they were unfit to continue with the training. The Standard could not immediately establish if those sent home were the extra recruits whom insiders said were handpicked without undergoing the normal recruitment procedure.

Sources revealed that the excess recruits were 1,061. The college bosses refused to comment on the matter, but said the decision was made after a meeting at the Office of the President.

Handpicked by powerful politicians

About 2,051 recruits admitted to the college two weeks ago have been scrambling for the few resources. We had revealed that senior officers at the institution were arm- twisted to recruit the 1,061 applicants.

The extra number was reportedly handpicked by powerful politicians and delivered to the training college without the mandatory scrutiny. Officials at the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (Kacc), which blew the whistle on the irregular recruitment, said they had also received complaints of manipulation during the June 9 exercise.

"We were in the field when the exercise was being conducted and recorded some malpractice. We have also received complaints of nepotism, which took place later," a senior Kacc official said.

The college has a capacity for 888 recruits at a time for the nine-month training. Following the extra number this year, the recruits were forced to share amenities, including double-decker beds. An official structure on the exercise from the Office of the President indicated that each of the 74 districts was to produce 12 recruits.

Congestion at college

When we published the story last week, AP Commandant Kinuthia Mbugua defended the exercise, saying the number was increased to 1,500 following a directive to admit a double intake for both Kenya police and AP recruits.

But there was no explanation on the secretive nature in which the additional recruits were picked and why they did not go through the normal recruitment procedure.

Insiders said Cabinet ministers, MPs and other senior Government officials had prevailed on the commandant to have their relatives and constituents recruited. Figures obtained by The Standard showed that a powerful politician had his 200 constituents and relatives recruited, while a Cabinet minister pushed for 66 of his relatives and constituents.

It costs the Government about Sh500,000 to take an AP constable through the nine-month course. The college was allocated Sh431 million this financial year, which was slightly higher than last year's Sh402 million.

Mbugua had conceded that there was congestion at the college, adding that they had not set aside training facilities to cater for the additional number. The college administrators had initially agreed to increase the number to 1,500 after being promised extra training facilities.

Recruitment nullified

The recruitment debacle rekindled memories of the twin scams involving the recruitment of regular police officers and Kenya Wildlife Service wardens in 2004 and 2005.

The Standard exposed the KWS in November 2004 in which 928 trainees had been recruited for training as game wardens - against the required 560 - at their Manyani Training Camp.

The exclusive expose resulted in the nullification of the exercise and the sending home of all the recruits. There were accusations and counter-accusations that led to the exit of the KWS director Mr Evans Mukolwe.

Even though the Government apologised to Kenyans over the anomaly, a similar scam was to rock the police force in December last year.

After a nationwide recruitment of police trainees, KACC director Aaron Ringera blew the whistle on the manner in which the police recruitment had been conducted.

He said the recruitment was riddled with corruption, and called for its cancellation.

Police officers suspended

A day later, the Commissioner of Police, Maj-Gen Mohammed Hussein Ali, suspended the 175 police officers involved in the exercise and revoked the results.

The police boss also revoked admission letters that had been issued to 3,000 new recruits.

A repeat of the discredited recruitment drive took place in March this year.

Ringera had said 80 per cent of the exercise was marred with bribery, and asked that it be cancelled.

Police were supposed to recruit 4,000 constables but the number was reduced to 3,000 because of lack of resources at the Kiganjo and Embakasi barracks.

President Kibaki had announced that the number of recruits into the colleges could be increased while taking into consideration the resources available.

This was in line with strategic reforms proposals for the police force, which includes increasing the number of officers to at least 70,000. There are currently around 39,000 police officers and 16,000 APs.