REASON WHY POLICE FORCE REQUIRE D+ CANDIDATES

Police Recruitment Grade: It has always puzzled Kenyans why the police always prefer to recruit mainly form four leavers with a mean grade of D. Well, the reason behind this was revealed by former Kenya Police Service spokesperson Charles Owino weeks before he was transferred from this docket.

Owino said that the service will continue to give preference to form four leavers who score grade D+ as opposed to those who score the superior grade of C+ and above.

According to Mr. Owino, recruits who join the force with the grade of D are more likely to exhibit loyalty to the service.

He added that apart from grades, the service is keener on the recruits’ level of intelligence, which recruits who scored poorly in KCSE can muster.

“We have a challenge when we employ every policeman with grade C+ and above…they go back to school, they get their degrees, they come back and tell you ‘now we don’t want to serve at this level.’ For every 9 police officers, we may only have one corporal and one inspector…so you cannot promote everyone to those levels,” he explained.

“We get officers at direct entry inspectorate, then let’s also get officers who have C plain, C-, D+…people who will work at those levels for a longer period of time, they’ll become corporals, sergeants…because we need all these levels.”

Mr. Charles Owino further added: “What is important in recruiting a policeman (is that) you just need an intelligent person, and intelligence is not merely meted on the grade you got…Yes, it’s an assumption, but I can tell you we’ve had people from disadvantaged areas like North Eastern but they’ve done a very good job. There’s a lot that it involves, it’s not just high grades only. You come in with good education, you pocket and don’t do your work, it’s not your education that will do your work, you must be practical, and you must earn your promotions fairly.”

By Bizna Kenya