NPSC takes police hiring dispute with IG Kanja to Supreme Court
Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja (left) with the Chairman of the National Police Service Commission (NPSC), Dr. Amani Yuda Komora addressing journalists during the 2025 National Police Service recruitment of police constables press conference held at the National Police Service Embakasi ‘A’ Campus in Nairobi on October 1, 2025.
The National Police Service Commission (NPSC) is taking its fight over police recruitment to the Supreme Court after the Court of Appeal upheld Inspector-General Douglas Kanja’s authority to hire police constables.
In a notice of appeal, the commission said it was dissatisfied with the appellate judgment and intended to challenge the whole decision.
“Take notice that the National Police Service commission, being dissatisfied with the judgment and decision of the Court of Appeal at Nairobi, intends to appeal to the Supreme Court of Kenya against the whole of the said judgment and decision,” reads the document.
The dispute concerns who has constitutional authority to recruit and manage uniformed police officers: the commission, which oversees personnel matters, or the National Police Service under the Inspector-General’s independent command.
The outcome affects recruitment, promotions, discipline and the division of responsibility between the two institutions.
The case began on September 19, 2025, when the NPSC advertised vacancies for constables in the Daily Nation and gazetted Legal Notice No.159, the National Police Service Commission (Recruitment and Appointment) Regulations, 2025.
The planned exercise was to recruit 10,000 constables but was halted after a court challenge.
Former Kilome MP John Harun Mwau petitioned the Employment and Labour Relations Court, arguing that the commission had no constitutional power to recruit members of a national security organ.
He said sworn officers had to be recruited and trained by the Service under the Inspector-General alone.
The Inspector-General, the National Police Service, the Attorney-General and the National Security Council supported the petition.
The Independent Policing Oversight Authority opposed it, disputing the court’s jurisdiction and Mr Mwau’s standing. IPOA also argued that the commission’s mandate extended to uniformed officers as well as civilian staff.
On October 30, 2025, Justice Hellen Wasilwa ruled for Mr Mwau. She declared the 2025 regulations unconstitutional and permanently restrained the NPSC from recruiting, training, employing, assigning, promoting, suspending or dismissing members of the Service.
The order also stopped the September 2025 recruitment advertisement, allowing the IG to oversee the recruitment.
The commission and the Law Society of Kenya appealed. They argued that Article 246(3) of the Constitution authorised the NPSC to recruit and appoint people to offices in the Service, and that the Constitution did not create separate recruitment powers for uniformed and civilian personnel.
They also challenged the Labour Court’s jurisdiction and said the ruling threatened young Kenyans’ right to fair labour practices.
But on October 16, 2026, Justices Patrick Kiage, Jamila Mohammed and Jessie Lesiit dismissed both appeals. The court said the Constitution deliberately distinguishes sworn officers, described as “members of the Service”, from civilian employees holding offices within it.
Those employees remain within the NPSC’s recruitment and appointment remit.
“It is this latter category of staff of the Service that fall for recruitment, appointment, promotion and transfer by the commission in the contemplation of Article 246(3) of the Constitution,” the judges said.
On sworn officers, the court relied on Article 245, which protects the Inspector-General’s independent command. It said no person, including the Cabinet Secretary and the commission, could direct the IG on employment, assignment, promotion, suspension or dismissal of a police service member.
“These are the very matters the commission claims competence over, but the Constitution clearly denies it,” the judges said.
The judges rejected the argument that limiting the commission’s role would revive police impunity.
Inspector-General Kanja welcomed the ruling, saying, “The constitutional order has been vindicated.” The National Police Service later said Kanja had approved the promotion of 1,948 officers who had completed the required courses and met the prescribed conditions.
The notice of appeal signals that the commission wants the Supreme Court to reconsider the Court of Appeal’s findings.
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