In 2004 , then Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki appointed little know Brigadier Mohammed Hussein Ali to the position of Commissioner of Police . Brigadier Ali ( later promoted to Major General ) replaced the beleaguered Edwin Nyaseda , under whose watch violent crime such as armed robbery and carjacking had risen since Kibaki ' s election in December 2002 . " These changes are aimed at injecting new blood to the leadership of the Police , giving a new approach in the management of security in the country ," read a statement from the Presidential Press Service at the time .

What was not lost on those with a keen eye for these things is that while the Brigadier was brought in ostensibly to address the core issues of complacency and corruption in the police force , his real remit was to ruthlessly and decisively tackle crime - particularly in Nairobi - in a bid to encourage foreign investors to return to Kenya . In the preceding decade , many foreign companies had avoided investing in Kenya due to red tape , widespread corruption , and notably the unacceptable levels of crime .

It must be said that Ali took up his new duties with great zeal . In no time at all , statistics showed a remarkable drop in crime and there were genuine attempts mooted to reform the police . Fast forward to 2011 and Ali found himself sitting in the International Criminal Court ( ICC ) at the Hague , accused alongside five other Kenyans of bearing the greatest responsibility for the Post Election Violence that had rocked Kenya in the late 2007 and early 2008 following the disputed presidential election . Ali ’ s role as the Police Commissioner and his officers ’ acts of commission or omission ( the activities of the police resulted in the deaths of hundreds during this time and countless injuries ) had landed him in the dock .

Ali was eventually acquitted but it must be said that this unfortunate incident left

The solutions to making Kenya ’ s public servants more responsive to the needs of citizens and improving service delivery does not lie in seconding soldiers to our civilian institutions . Instead , it lies in those entrusted with these responsibilities realizing that public service is a noble calling and then acting accordingly for the benefit of those who pay their salaries - the tax payers . a stain on the professional reputation of an otherwise dedicated and accomplished career military man . One good thing to come out of this though was the realization as well as acceptance that police reforms needed to be implemented and quickly .

Enter President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta in 2013 , from whom much was expected of as the first President elected under the new constitutional dispensation . His administration started well enough but was quickly bogged down by accusations of mega corruption , as well as claims of ethnic exclusion in public appointments .

It did not help that the opposition Coalition for Reforms and Democracy ( CORD ), still smarting from what they perceived to be a stolen election , decided to make it very hard indeed for the nascent Jubilee government to govern .

As the President and his team muddled along during that first term , it might have gone unnoticed by some of us that Kenyatta began to tap a number of senior serving military officers , appointing them to head key government departments .

Following his controversial re-election in 2017 and the subsequent peace deal with Opposition Leader Raila Odinga , this trend has continued and alarmingly so . It has been augmented by the appointment of Major General Mohamed Badi to head the Nairobi Metropolitan Services ( NMS ) whose very legality as an administrative entity is being challenged in court by no less than the Governor of Nairobi . Badi himself sits in the Cabinet which in itself has raised serious concerns from legal and constitutional experts . Incidentally , a proposal by Badi to have the residents

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Continued Militarization Of Kenya ’ s Public Service Should Give Us Pause