Johnston Kavuludi exits as chairman of the National Police Service Commission with his head held high.
As the first chairman of the institution established under the 2010 Constitution, Kavuludi has done very well in uncharted waters.
He assumed office amid pregnant expectations from the public to deal with a rogue police system that was entrenched for decades.
Since independence, the police service, for over 50 years, had been rogue as well as battling image issues. At some point, a human skull was sent to his office to intimidate him but he remained focused.
Kavuludi was trying to bring order among officers who preferred the status quo.
He has overseen radical changes in the service as well as enforcement of quality standards, in particular the landmark vetting of officers.
He forced senior officers to face him to answer to all manner of questions touching on their professional duties and wealth to gauge their integrity to remain in the service.
Establishing the officers’ integrity and conduct is no mean task. It is a serious job, which Kavuludi and his team did really very well. Let us say the man has done well in view of the circumstances and the environment he has been operating in.
I regret that the man is leaving. I wish he would be given more time to continue with the reforms he has been overseeing at the commission.
His tenure, if it were possible, should get an extension. In a scale of 1-10, I would give him 8.5 in terms of what he has been able to achieve at the commission during his tenure. Kavuludi leaves when confidence levels in the police have been increasing drastically among members of the public.
Although he has not been able to stamp out corruption within the service completely, nowadays we see officers conducting themselves better and professionally.
However, the biggest challenge Kavuludi faced during his tenure was resistance and lack of cooperation from police officers. We call upon his successor to plug the gaps and continue implementing the strategic plan to turn around the service.
The security expert spoke to the Star