Independent Policing Oversight Authority is on course to get a fresh Board after eight candidates were shortlisted for interviews for the position of chairperson and 21 others for the seven available slots for Board members.

A total of 15 and 253 applications were received for the position of chairperson and members respectively, an indication of high interest among eminent Kenyan professionals, in steering the strive for high policing standards in Kenya.

The interviews will be conducted between July 19 and July 26, by the IPOA Selection Panel, chaired by Mr Paul Gachoka Mwaniki.

To ensure that the best candidates are picked for the position, the Panel has invited members of the public to provide information of interest relating to any of the shortlisted candidates as per the attached notice.

IPOA Act demands that interviews are conducted in public and thereafter three names of people qualified to be the chairperson are selected and eight others who qualify to be Board members, which are then forwarded to the President.

In part, Section 11 of the Act says: “The President shall, if he approves, within 14 days of receipt of the names of successful applicants….select the chairperson and Members…and forward the names so selected to the National Assembly for approval.”

After the President picks his choice, the following is a brief step by step process that will follow before the Board is finally in place:

1. The National Assembly shall within 21 days of its next sitting after receiving the names vet and consider them and may approve or reject any or all of them.
2. Where the National Assembly approves all the names, the Speaker shall forward them to the President for appointment.
3. Within seven days, the President shall gazette them and appoint them to the Board.
4. In case Parliament rejects any nomination, the Speaker shall inform the President within three days and request for fresh nominations.
5. The President is then duty bound to, within seven days, forward a fresh name from what was presented by the Selection Panel to the National Assembly.
6. In the event the National Assembly rejects subsequent nominations, the Process shall start afresh, beginning with the Selection Panel identifying new candidates and conducting interviews.

Section 9 of the IPOA Act dictates that the Authority’s chairperson must be qualified to be a Judge of the High Court of Kenya while the members can be selected from various disciplines including Criminology, Psychology, Law, Human Rights and Gender, Medicine, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Security Matters or Community Policing.

The Chairperson of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights also sits at IPOA Board as an ex-officio.