The Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee of the National Assembly  on Friday called out the Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome for snubbing their retreat in Mombasa and usurping the role of National Police Service Commission.

The Gathoni Wa Muchomba led Committee  had invited the NPSC commissioners led by the Chairperson Eliud Kinuthia and the Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome together with his two deputies for a retreat in Mombasa to understand the conflict between them and possible ways of resolving the same.

Koome however snubbed the meeting despite earlier committing to the said retreat. The members of Parliament vowed to take action against him following the report tabled by NPSC where he was accused of usurping the Human resource function of NPS.

“Today we have heard from one side of the commissioners, we also wanted to hear from the other side of uniformed commissioners but unfortunately there seems to be a very clear intention to sabotage  the way the National Police service commission is supposed to work according to the constitution of Kenya,” said Gathono wa Muchomba who is the chair of the parliamentary committee.

She noted that the issues raised by NPSC indicated that the current IG Koome had a personal problem with the commissioners   because there the previous IGs did not have issues working with the commission.

“We wanted the IG express himself to us why he has a problem working with the chair of the commission, why he denies quorum to the commission whenever there is a meeting , why he recruits police officers alone without involving the commission, why he promotes the officers without involving the commission yet he is a member of that commission and how many sittings as a commissioner has he  attended as the IG,” she said.

Manyatta MP Gitonga Mukunji on his part noted that the snubbing of the meeting by the IG  was a clear sabotage as stated by the commissioners.

“We have seen the sabotage of quorum,  by not appearing in this retreat, the IG  is a saboteur of what he is promoting, the writers  of the constitution were not wrong when they said there should be an Independent commission…we are now trying to link the insecurity  happening in this country to the real sabotage and personalization of the office of IG,” he said.

NPSC tabled a report to the committee detailing ways of better harmony in the NPSC’s function.

The Chairman reported that the amendments on quorum and making of ex-officio members determinants of quorum violates Articles 250(6)(7)

“Do not allow this commission to die in your hands…help me so that there is prosperity in the commission,” NPSC Chairperson told the committee.

The committee is now expected to deliberate on the report and table its recommendations to the National Assembly.