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All set for police recruitment as petition to block the exercise is withdrawn
30th September, 2025 01:41 PM
Sheria Mtaani and lawyer Shadrack Wambui have withdrawn a petition that they filed at the Milimani High Court seeking a conservatory order restraining Inspector General of Police (IG) Douglas Kanja and the National Police Service (NPS) from recruiting 10,000 police officers.
The recruitment is scheduled to take place starting Friday, October 3, 2025, to October 9, 2025.
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Appearing before Justice Lawrence Mugambi on Tuesday, September 30, 2025, lawyer Danstan Omari, representing the petitioners, told the court that their decision to withdraw the petition has come after they received many calls and messages urging them to let the exercise proceed.
They stated that many of the youths interested in joining the police force had already travelled so many miles for the exercise.
Many calls and messages
“Sheria Mtaani received more than 20,000 messages and phone calls requesting that the application be withdrawn because many youth of this country have already travelled to the recruitment centres,” lawyer Omari told the court.
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The court heard that many parents argued that it would not be in the interest of their children for the recruitment to be stopped.
“We have considered the input of our principal, who instructed us to allow the 10,000 youth to be recruited starting tomorrow. The petitioner has applied to withdraw the application dated August 11, 2025, and September 9, 2025, in totality,” lawyer Omari told the court.
In the application, the petitioners argued there is a pending matter they lodged in court on August 12, 2025, raising weighty constitutional questions on the delineation of 9 powers under Articles 245 and 246 of the Constitution in respect of control and management of the payroll of the NPS.
“That pending the hearing and determination of this application herein, a conservatory order be issued restraining the Respondents, whether by themselves, their officers, servants, agents, or any person acting under their authority, from proceeding with or in any way conducting the recruitment of police officers as recently announced,” part of the application read.
In the earlier matter, the petitioners seek an interpretation of the court on whether the aforementioned role is an operations role designated to the Inspector General of Police (1st Respondent) or a human resource management role designated to the Inspector General of Police (1st Respondent).
Further, they state that even after the court issued directions, the respondents and interested parties are yet to file any responses in opposition to the application dated August 11, 2025, and as such, it remains unopposed.
However, the petitioners assert that the IG and NPS have announced plans to commence with the recruitment of ten thousand (10,000) police officers in the coming weeks.
According to the lawyers Wambui and Sheria Mtaani, the recruitment of police officers is directly tied to payroll management, as recruits must be placed on the payroll for payment of salaries, allowances, and benefits, all of which are at the centre of the dispute before the court.
Notably, they stated that permitting recruitment at this stage risks the creation of appointments and payroll entries under a disputed administrative authority, thereby entrenching a contested practice that may be difficult to reverse and undermining the efficacy of any orders the court may ultimately issue.
“That if recruitment proceeds before this question is determined, payroll entries for the 10,000 recruits will be made under an authority whose constitutional mandate is in dispute, thereby prejudicing the role of the 1st Interested Party (National Police Service Commission) in recruitment and payroll administration if the Court finds in its favour,” part of the application read.
