Inside Nairobi City Inspectorate's ambitious transformation plan

City Hall is looking to spend at least Sh619 million on part of a massive transformational plan of the city inspectorate department, as Nairobi continues to fix the unit’s bad reputation.

This is part of a staggering Sh1 billion earmarked by the security and compliance sector in the next financial year, ending June 30, 2023.

It will cover areas including law enforcement, traffic control, sentry services and VIP protection as well as training of new recruits.

A top priority is building of a Sh200 million modern training facility that will be dedicated to training the more than 2,000 county inspectorate officers commonly known as kanjo askaris.

But before the modern training facility is up and running, Sh58 million will be spent on training or capacity building for 2,657 employees in a phased approach.

According to the Nairobi County Annual Development Plan for that financial year, another Sh10 million will be used to buy 2,567 protective gears, equipment and tools for improved security and working environment.

Another Sh2 million will be used to purchase 30 communication gadgets intended for prompt response and improved communication.

Major partnership

In June, the Anne Kananu administration inked a deal with the National Police Service to train more than 1,000 of its inspectorate officers at the Kiganjo Police Training College and Administration Police Training College, Embakasi.

According to Director of Enforcement Services, Dr Mark Leleruk, the four-month training is aimed at introducing a new culture of professionalism and integrity through graduate inspectorate courses.

“We intend to build the capacity of our staff through rolling out training programmes as well as ensuring proper succession plans. We intend to rebrand and get rid of the culture associated with corruption and brutality, especially when dealing with hawkers,” said Dr Leleruk.

The recruitment of 500 more officers to plug a gaping staff shortage will cost Sh180 million and will be carried out in phases.

Already, an advertisement for the positions has run as City Hall seeks to have enough officers to deal with hawkers, parking boys, muggers and petty offenders in the city.

Another Sh100 million will go towards the phased purchase of uniforms for 1,000 new recruits of the lower cadre.

Further, Sh10 million will be used to buy working equipment including cameras, communication gadgets, walk-through detectors and appropriate protective gears. as well as installation of five boosters in Kasarani, Westlands, City Hall, Makadara and Kibra.

For towing non-compliant vehicles, Sh30 million will be needed to purchase three breakdowns, one heavy and two small. City Hall has been outsourcing breakdown services from private owners.

The sector will also spend Sh10 million to purchase 10 pieces of investigation equipment aimed at quick completion of cases and improved service delivery, Sh15 million to buy three vehicles and Sh4 million to purchase 10 motorcycles all aimed at facilitating timely response.

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