City Hall wants to hire 500 more inspectorate officers, commonly known as kanjos, as it grapples with a shortage of staff in the security and compliance department.
With this in mind, officials have set aside Sh180 million in the budget to recruit new officers.
But in the meantime, the county government will outsource guarding services from other agencies.
New officers will be hired in phases, officials say, with an eye on adopting a proper succession plan in a department struggling with aging staff.
The positions have already been advertised as City Hall seeks to have enough officers to deal with hawkers, parking boys, muggers and petty offenders in Nairobi.
“A total of 500 new officers will be recruited in the next financial year as the county looks at having the required workforce aimed at improved service delivery and prompt response,” says the Nairobi County Annual Development Plan for the financial year ending on June 30, 2023.
The department, comprising the inspectorate, investigations and information analysis, and administration and support services, now relies on 2,567 officers.
The officers ensure compliance with county by-laws and orders, and provide security for county installations, properties and sentries.
They also investigate cases, gather intelligence and analyse information on issues of interest to the county.
Acting Governor Ann Kananu’s administration also plans to spend Sh58 million on capacity building for the officers by rolling out training programmes.
In June this year, county officials inked a deal with the National Police Service to train more than 1,000 of its inspectorate officers at the Kiganjo Police Training College and the Administration Police Training College in Embakasi.
The four-month training aims to introduce a new culture of professionalism and integrity into the unit, with graduate inspectorate courses knitted into the programme, said Director of Enforcement Services Mark Leleruk.
“We intend to build the capacity of our staff through rolling out training programmes, as well as ensure a proper succession plan. We intend to rebrand and get rid of the culture associated with corruption and brutality, especially when dealing with hawkers,” Dr Leleruk said.
But in the long term, the county government plans to build a Sh200 million modern training facility for county inspectorate officers.
Another Sh100 million will be used to purchase uniforms for 1,000 lower-cadre new recruits in phases, a process that had begun.
