•Some prison officers have complained over flawed promotion interviews.
•Kenya Prisons acknowledged receipt of the complains and says its working to address them.
Image: FILE
Claims of unfairness have marred the ongoing nationwide promotion interviews for prisons officers.
Insiders claim less qualified officers had been picked from the preliminary stages.
A police signal from commissioner general Wycliff Ogallo to all regional commanders dated August 4 read: “The department is in the process of filling up vacancies in the ranks of corporal, sergeant and senior sergeant of prisons.”
The promotion exercise is meant to address issues of staff stagnation and succession.
Officers who have served in the rank of corporal or sergeant for more than 20 years with an exceptionally good record were exempted from the interviews.
Also exempted were senior sergeants and constables who had served for more than 20 years.
A signal from Nairobi regional police commander Kamore Gicheru clarified that the 20-year rule for prison constables only applied to officers aged 51 to 60.
Sources at Kamiti Medium Security Prison told the Star the exercise had been marred by favoritism and nepotism.
Records in our possession show that the scores of officers in the rank of corporal seeking promotion to sergeant who were employed from the year 2000 got more marks in station level exams than those employed in the 1980s.
Out of 40 officers in the rank of corporal subjected to the interviews, five were women. Four passed the station interview.
Among the sergeants seeking promotion to senior sergeant, 24 officers were selected for regional interviews. A female officer employed in 2010 emerged in position three while another officer employed in 1990 was at position 24.
A sergeant employed in 1984 and another in 1990 didn’t make the cut, according to the documents.
Of the 13 female officers interviewed for SS position, 10 passed.
“If you can serve for 30 years and you don’t work you should have been sacked. Younger officers can’t appear more professional than older colleagues,” a disgruntled officer puzzled by the results told the Star on condition of anonymity.
Sources now say the younger officers are either relatives of the bosses or cronies.
Prisons communications manager Kennedy Aluda on Wednesday acknowledged the claims, saying they were being addressed.
“We gave out the criteria for the promotions. If anybody is not following that, we will nullify those results and repeat the process where its proven the law was not followed,” Aluda said.
He said that the department had received 80 complaints of officers allegedly left out unfairly.