Nairobi — The Government has affirmed its commitment to reforming the working and organisational culture of the Security and National Government Administration officers in the country with the aim of fostering harmonious relationship between the police and the public.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki said Monday when he presided over the commissioning of the Taita Sub-County Police Headquarters and Police Station in Taita-Taveta's Wundanyi that the move is part of the efforts meant to weed out vices such as corruption that impede access to government services.
Kindiki challenged the security agents and administrators to actively work towards rebuilding public trust, which he acknowledges has significantly diminished in recent times.
"I want to call upon all security agents and public officials from our country from every department and all agencies of government, that we must put in place organizational culture change so that we can have new ethics and new way of interacting with the public and get the public confidence in the security agencies and the services we offer," he said.
The Interior CS also made it clear that the government will not tolerate any misuse of power by security agents to intimidate or harass members of the public.
Kindiki underscored that Kenya is a free and democratic country where every individual should be treated fairly.
"You must treat the public well, talk to them well, you must protect the broader society from the few criminals, and we must develop good language and good ethics of handling the members of the public not to treat them like they are nothing," he added.
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Kindiki's remarks come as the National Taskforce on Police and Prison Reforms led by the former Chief Justice David Maraga is set to submit its recommendations to President William Ruto.
The report which seeks to seal existing gaps within the operations of the police service and better the working conditions of security personnel in the country.
The Taskforce, appointed in December last year, is mandated with identifying the legal, policy, administrative, institutional and operational constraints on effective service delivery by the National Police Service (NPS) and Kenya Prisons Service (KPS) and review and recommend improvement of the terms and conditions of service.
The Maraga-led taskforce is also tasked with reviewing and recommending improvement of matters relating to welfare of officers in all cadres of the NPS and KPS and all other matters incidental to the optimal service delivery of the service.
"The terms of reference of the taskforce are to review the human capital management and development policies with a view of examining and reviewing standards and practices in recruitment, deployment, transfers, training, career progression, performance based and competitive promotions, reward, exit, and post-exit management," Ruto stated in a Gazette Notice published on December 21.
