The National Police Service Commission has up to midnight to hand over names of successful candidates for the positions of two Deputies IG and the DCI boss to President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The commission on Thursday interviewed five people to fill the two vacancies of the DIGs in charge of Kenya Police and Administration Police services, and the head of Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
The commission, chaired by Johnston Kavuludi, has 14 days from January 5 to complete the recruitment. The period lapses on Friday at midnight (today).
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For the DIG in charge of APS, the NPSC interviewed acting DIG Noor Gabow, director of Planning and External Linkages Vincent Makokha, and assistant IG Musa Kakawa.
The commission interviewed Edward Mbugua and George Kinoti for DIG in charge of Kenya Police and the DCI director respectively, as the lone candidates for the positions.
Mbugua and Kinoti have been holding the offices in acting capacity since January 5 when Uhuru fired their predecessors Joel Kitili and Ndegwa Muhoro.
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Kavuludi said the two were the only qualified applicants for interviews to fill the positions.
"We will submit the names to the appointing authority, who is the president, to determine who among those we have recommended gets appointed," he said on Thursday.
Other applicants for the position were lawyer Milka Cheptinga, who applied for both DIG in-charge of KPS and the DCI director's job.
Cheptinga is an employee of the Uasin Gishu county government and a part time legal consultant for an NGO.
Other applicants were Police constable Bernard Ombati and Psychologist Bernard Ngumi, who works with Kenya Red Cross Society in Embu.
Kavuludi said the NPSC invited applications for the the three vacancies on January 11 but only nine sent applications.
He said Cheptinga, Ombati and Ngumi's applications were rejected because they are not police officers of the rank of assistant IG and above.
He dismissed claims of Uhuru's meddling with the appointment of the top police chiefs.
Senior cops kept off the jobs and said they knew the recruitment was over immediately the president appointed Mbugua, Kinoti and Gabow on acting capacity.
But Kavuludi said the appointments were done in consultation with the commission and IG [Joseph Boinnet] before the president announced.
"The law allows the president to remove, redeploy and retire a DIG from the police service before the officer attains the age of retirement," Kavuludi said.
"When the vacancy falls, our job is to recommend to the president, through a competitive process, we invite for applications for interviews on a set criteria."
He said the process considers certain competencies and skills an applicant possesses adding there is a laid down marking scheme for the same.
"Even if there is only one candidate who meets such thresh-hold we can only recommend that candidate to the president for appointment."
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