Inside Noor Gabow's legacy at the Administration Police (AP) Service

The redeployment of former Deputy Inspector General of Police Noor Gabow to public service brings to an end nearly a decade of reforms and improvements in the Administration Police Service that adopted a protective policing and border security mandate under the 2010 constitution.

Gabow will be remembered for having spearheaded major changes in the Administration Police, modelling it into a modern service with specialised units after the restructuring of the National Police Service in 2018 to eradicate an overlap and duplication of duties between the AP and the Kenya Police.

The restructuring saw 20,000 officers from the AP join the Kenya Police, raising concerns that the AP service would be weakened.

However, under Gabow, the AP established Kenya's first all-female Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Commandos and built the 160-bed, level-four APS Border Police Unit Hospital in Kanyonyo, Kitui County, through contributions made by individual officers for as little as Sh50.

The all-female team is among the highly trained units of the AP, having undertaken courses in counter-terrorism policing abroad.

Other critical and highly skilled units under the service include the elite Special Operations Group (SOG), tasked with anti-terror operations along the Kenyan borders, alongside the Kenya Defence Forces, which has recorded multiple successes under its name.

The Border Police Unit, under which a special weapons tactical team is domiciled as well as a second "Marine Unit" tasked with keeping the sea border from North Somalia and South West of Lake Victoria secure, is also highly trained in counter-terrorism operations.

Gabow will also be remembered for overseeing improved relations between the specialised units and external partners' efforts that have led to their high capacity training and successes in, amongst others, securing the sea borders from infiltration by terrorists and criminals seeking to engage in illegal trade of arms and fishing.

Former Deputy Inspector General of Police Noor Gabow CBS, OGW presides over the 12th Edition of the National Police Service Track and Field Championships at Ulinzi Sports Complex in Nairobi on May 3, 2024. (Photo: NPS)

During his term, the service kicked off a communications unit that shared its successes and increased its social media visibility and a camel Cavalry Unit that is tasked with patrolling remote sections along the borders to combat banditry and protect officers from improvised explosive device (IED) attacks in the far-flung areas with harsh terrain.

"They can endure any condition. These animals are unique for now, and their value has gone up. They are ready," Gabow said in 2022, when the unit was commissioned by then-President Uhuru Kenyatta in Isiolo.

In 2022, during his short stint as Acting Inspector General of Police, Gabow disbanded the Special Service Unit (SSU) and had the unit's members recalled to DCI headquarters for redeployment after they were accused of having a hand in the abduction and killing of two Indian nationals, Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan and Mohammed Zaid Sami, and their taxi driver, Nicodemus Mwania Mwange, on diverse dates between July 22 and July 23, 2022, in Nairobi County.

He also cancelled senior detective John Gachomo's appointment as Internal Affairs Unit head due to complaints by civil society groups over missing persons during his stint as the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) boss.

Before his deployment to public service, Gabow also oversaw the training and preparation of the Kenyan police officers deployed to the Multi-National Security Support mission in Haiti to fight armed gangs and was named as the commander of the Kenyan-led mission until last month, when the Head of Operations at the Administration Police, Senior Assistant Inspector General Godfrey Otunge, was declared the commander.

Gabow, who saw off the second batch to the Caribbean nation on Monday night, July 15, will instead coordinate the mission from Nairobi, even as he takes over a yet-to-be-declared new role within the public service.

"In accordance with Section 17 of the National Police Service Act, His Excellency the President has caused the redeployment of Mr. Noor Gabow, CBS, within the Public Service," the State House Spokesperson announced in a statement.

Under the NPS Act, the President is at liberty to remove, retire, or redeploy a DIG at any time before he attains the age of retirement.

Gabow has now been succeeded by the immediate Commandant of the National Police Service, Embakasi A Campus, Mr. James Kamau, in an acting capacity pending the appointment of the substantive DIG-APS, a position that has since been advertised by the police hiring body, the National Police Service Commission.

He leaves the service a year and a half before his retirement.