DCI begins promotional training for over 500 officers

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations has kicked off a promotional training course for over 500 of its staff, a first of its kind in the country.

The course is unique in that it is the first time in the history of the country that the Directorate is training its officers for promotions.

The training follows the Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome's approval of the Directorate's request to train and promote its staff in line with recommendations by former Chief Justice David Maraga's report on prison and police reforms.

The bulk of the 513 officers are in the rank of Constables who will be promoted to Corporals and Corporals who will be promoted to Sergeants after the course completion at the National Police Service, Magadi Field Campus in Kajiado County.

Another cohort of police sergeants has been attending a four-month senior sergeant course at the National Criminal Investigations Academy (NCIA) in South C.

At the same time, 90 of the detectives are undertaking a senior management course in two batches of 45 each at the National Police College, Kiganjo Campus and at the Senior Staff College in Emali.

The advanced training seeks to boost operations within the unit as demand for enhancing officers' skills rises to cater to the dynamic complex crime patterns in the country.

Director DCI Mohamed Amin, flanked by the Commandant General Service Unit Eliud Lagat and other senior officers from the DCI and GSU officiated the opening of the training in Magadi on Monday last week.

"This is the first time in the history of the DCI that the Directorate is training its officers for promotions, following the Inspector General's approval that the third stone of the three services under the NPS umbrella had the capacity to train and promote its staff," said DCI boss Mohamed at the time.

Equal opportunities

The Director said the training is structurally objective and geared towards nurturing them into becoming future commanders even as he assured detectives in the unit to ensure equal opportunities for all in terms of transfers, training, attachments and secondments.

DCI Director Mohamed Amin addresses officers who will take part in the promotional training course at the National Police Service, Magadi Field Campus in Kajiado County. (Photo: DCI)

"We know you are the backbone of the service and hence these sessions are meant to help you be better," he said.

He assured the trainees of his commitment to ensuring equal opportunities for all DCI personnel in matters of transfers, training, attachments and secondments.

Justice (Rtd) Maraga's report heavily borrowed on recommendations made by previous task forces that underscored the key role of training in police transformation.

They include the Ransley Report that further recommended that Commanders' courses be reintroduced immediately and any officers who have been deployed as Officer Commanding Station or Division (OCS/SCPC) without having undergone the Commanders' Course should be redeployed from station management until they successfully complete the course.

This has been implemented by the service with the introduction of a senior management course for senior gazetted officers and a middle management course for the inspectorate cadre, as well as a strategic leadership command course for other senior commanders.

However, the Taskforce noted that the service is faced with career stagnation, with officers remaining in one rank for up to 30 years noting that in some cases, officers retire in the lowest rank in the Service, as constables, even where such officers possess clean records that qualify them to be promoted from one rank to another.

In its submissions to the Taskforce, the DCI lamented that the 2018 NPS Career Progression Guidelines were never implemented, hence there is a need to review the existing guidelines and implement them to meet the expectations of members, especially to facilitate their promotion and career advancement.

"The result of this sad state of affairs is a lack of continuous training, which has left officers poorly equipped to respond to the challenges of a rapidly changing security environment. The capacities of officers in units such as the DCI are significantly undermined by the lack of training that is relevant to their skills needs in line with modern technology and trends," the Taskforce noted.