Johnston Kavuludi has said he received a letter, from people suspected to be disgruntled ex-police officers,
threatening him with "a bullet to his dirty mind".
The NPSC chairman said
the national police
registry received the letter addressed
to President Uhuru Kenyatta on February 3.
He said the writers noted they are in solidarity with officers unfairly sacked by the National Police Service Commission in the ongoing vetting exercise.
"We appeal for your intervention before we take the law into our own hands. A number of us have been thinking of pushing a bullet into his dirty mind," it read in part.
The chairman said: "Our lives have been in danger, especially the life of the chair. The people we vet and dismiss are officially armed police officers and we cannot discount the fact that the weapons can be used against us."
Kavuludi told a press conference at the commission's offices in Nairobi on Wednesday that the writers of the letter want to interfere with the vetting process.
The letter claims officers, including police spokesman Charles Owino, were cleared after giving the chairman and commissioners bribes amounting to between Sh1 million and Sh5 million.
Kavuludi said there exists an "extortionist ring" that poses a threat to his and NPSC commissioners' lives, but noted he
had no apology for doing a thorough job.
He said he once found a freshly cut human head at his doorstep and an envelope said to have been laden with a lethal substance. The two incidents, he said, happened at the start of the first and second rounds of vetting.
"And now an anonymous letter is written to us with threats when we are at the start of the third phase of vetting," he said. "This is diversionary and meant to scare us. We will continue to do what we are mandated to."
Kavuludi, who issued the statement flanked by commissioners and the vetting team, said the DCI and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission launched investigations. He said the perpetrators have "rattled a snake" and should get ready to be "bitten".
Inspector General Joseph Boinett
DCI
Director Ndegwa Muhoro are members of the vetting panel.
When contacted for comment, Owino said anyone with evidence that he bribed the commission should swear an affidavit and not hide behind an anonymous letter.
"I am one person whose competency disturbs incompetent people. I am someone with unshakable integrity. I am not dying to remain a police officer," he said.
"I believe I can have a good life outside police service. So I don't need to bribe anyone to remain a police officer."
