CORD rejects bid to raise Kimaiyo's powers

Coalition for Reforms and Democracy rejects bid to raise IG David Kimaiyo powers

Updated Thursday, July 4th 2013 at 21:13 GMT +3

By LAWRENCE ALURU

KENYA: Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) will not support a Motion seeking to reduce the powers of the National Police Service Commission, a senator has said.

Siaya Senator James Orengo said the Constitution stipulates that the running of the police force is in the hands of civilians and therefore that Motion would be unconstitutional if passed.

Speaking in Ugunja yesterday, Orengo said that increasing the powers of Inspector General of PoliceDavid Kimaiyo would be wrong. He added that the move will give way for a skewed employment of people into the force.

Court order

This comes in the wake of a court order barring Kimaiyo from making any appointments in the police force. The former Lands minister also said the Senate was planning to introduce a new Bill that will increase allocation to the counties from the current Sh190 billion to Sh258 billion.

He said the devolved functions were too much to handle using the current allocation. The Bill, he added, would increase the annual county allocation from 15 per cent to 40 per cent of national revenue. The issue of revenue allocation recently caused uproar in the Senate when President Uhuru Kenyattaassented to the Division of Revenue Bill, a matter that brought to the fore the supremacy battle between the Senate and the National Assembly.