The National Police Service Commission (NPSC) has rejected the request by Senior Assistant Inspector-General of Police Gideon Nyale Munga to serve beyond the retirement age of 60.
Mr Munga, the commandant of the National Police Service (NPS) College in Kiganjo, Nyeri County, turned 60 in August.
The Sunday Nation understands that Deputy Inspector-General of Police Eliud Lagat made an effort to have Mr Munga’s tenure extended, informing Inspector-General of Police Douglas Kanja about it.
As a result, NPSC chairperson Amani Yuda Komora received a letter from Mr Kanja on August 10 requesting a one-year contract extension for Mr Munga.
At the time, Mr Munga was overseeing the training of a group of recruits who were 17 days from officially becoming police officers after their pass-out ceremony.
He was also overall in charge of training another group of officers who are to be deployed to the Nairobi Metropolitan Police Unit – a specialised formation intended to coordinate and strengthen security operations in the Nairobi metropolitan area.
Justifying the need for a one-year extension in his letter, Mr Kanja argued that the college commandant was instrumental in training the new unit’s officers and that there needed to be a smooth succession process that would leave no gaps.
Deputy Inspector-General of Police Eliud Lagat.
Photo credit: File
For Mr Munga, that was to be a bittersweet birthday. On one hand, it meant that he had completed another trip around the sun. But on the other, he was turning 60 – the statutory retirement age for civil servants.
That meant that, by law, he should have left office on August 11, 2026.
The request by the top cops to have Mr Munga’s tenure extended did not sail through. On August 31, Mr Kanja wrote to Mr Lagat, confirming that the contract extension request had been denied.
However, Mr Munga is still in office.
A source at the NPSC disclosed that in August 2025, a year before his 60th birthday, Mr Munga sought to have his retirement age moved to 64, a request that, just like the latest one, was denied by NPSC.
On Friday, Mr Munga declined to comment on his status, though he confirmed that he is still in office.
“It is a personal matter. Am I supposed to announce to the whole country? You can ask my boss, Mr Eliud Lagat,” Mr Munga said on the phone.
In the August 31 letter to Mr Lagat, Mr Kanja requested that his deputy arrange to compensate Mr Munga for the days worked after hitting retirement age as he parted ways with the service.
That conclusion preceded a paradox in the form of a meeting – Mr Kanja asking the NPSC, which no longer had any human resource powers in the police service, to extend Mr Munga’s contract.
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.
Photo credit: Bonface Bogita| Nation Media Group
On August 18, the NPSC held a special executive committee meeting in which Mr Kanja was asked to give more details on the request for extending Mr Munga’s contract.
Particularly, the commission wanted more details on Mr Kanja’s assertion that leadership continuity at the police college was only possible with Mr Munga’s presence, and that the commandant needed to be at the pass-out ceremony despite it being 16 days after his retirement date.
That NPSC meeting resolved to form a joint technical team comprising officers from the NPS and the NPSC – two bodies that have for years been at war over control of the human resource functions of the police.
The joint technical team was to compile a report with recommendations, and hand it back to the NPSC for a final determination of Mr Munga’s fate.
Three NPSC officials joined the technical team, with two from the NPS rounding up the group.
The technical team’s first consideration was enough to put an end to Mr Kanja’s quest to extend Mr Munga’s contract.
Just over a year earlier, the High Court had delivered a judgment in a case filed by former Kilome MP John Harun Mwau. Its verdict took away all human resource functions from the NPSC and handed them over to the NPS.
The Court of Appeal had refused to give the NPSC any temporary relief pending determination of the case.
On account of that refusal, it meant that the NPSC had no authority to hire, re-appoint, extend or otherwise handle any police officer’s contract.
Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja during the launch of the Multi-Biometric Identification System (MIBS) at the DCI Headquarters on July 23, 2026.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation Media Group
“Paragraphs 10 and 14 of the judgment permanently bars the authority of the Commission to exercise powers in Article 246 [of the Constitution] over officers in the ranks on the First Schedule of NPS Act. [There is a] risk of acting in contempt of the court’s ruling that stated it did not revert the powers of the Commission,” the joint technical team said in its report.
Despite noting that the NPSC had no authority over human resource functions, the team did not expressly recommend acceptance or rejection of the contract extension request.
The technical team recognised that the pass-out is an important event for police officers and which requires institutional memory and command continuity.
At the time of writing the report, there were only eight days left to prepare for the function.
The five-member team also agreed that there is a need for proper mentorship and a smooth transition for the NPS College Commandant role. Further, the Nairobi Metropolitan Police Unit is new, hence requires specialised training that will be conducted at the Kiganjo College, and which requires strategic leadership.
The team, however, identified a transition gap and recommended that it be filled as soon as possible.
“Considering that the transition gap was identified a day to the commandant’s retirement signifies a need for a proper succession plan for officers in the rank of Superintendent of Police and above,” the report further stated.
The team recommended that Mr Kanja facilitate Mr Munga’s stay until the pass-out, which has since taken place.
“Since Mr Munga has not officially handed over the office to his successor, the Inspector-General should consider the current administrative arrangement to facilitate the pass-out… The induction training will be handled as part of the succession planning strategy that the Commission and the Service will work on to ensure proper transfer of skills and expertise,” the team said in its recommendations on the way forward.
Then on August 31, Mr Kanja wrote to his deputy, Mr Lagat, stating that the contract extension mission was a failure as the cases on who between the NPSC and the NPS controls the human resource function of the police were still active at the Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal eventually delivered its judgment on the two appeals by NPSC and the Law Society of Kenya on October 16. The Appellate Court upheld the decision to house human resource functions of the police in the office of the Inspector-General.
