- Others will be from National Intelligence Service, Kenya Wildlife Service, National Youth Service and Kenya Forest Service.
- Special teams will man tallying centres at constituency and county levels
Up to 150,000 security officials will be deployed to man the August polls.
The National Police Service has prepared a plan on how they will deploy the personnel who will also include those from prisons, National Intelligence Service, Kenya Wildlife Service, National Youth Service and Kenya Forest Service.
Each of the 53,000 polling will have at least two police officers. More officers may be added depending on the needs.
The Inspector-General of police Hilary Mutyambai will gazette the other group that is not police officers as special police officers.
Apart from the polling stations, other officers will be deployed to tallying centres at all constituencies and counties as others will keep patrolling various places to ensure the smooth running of the programmes.
Anti riot teams mainly from Anti Stock Theft Unit, General Service Unit, Rapid Deployment Unit and Border Patrol Unit will be deployed to various hotspots and wait for any trouble.
The service has mapped out hotspots that will most likely get more attention.
“The traditional places like Nairobi are not hotspots this time round. Expect areas like Kiambu and Kirinyaga Counties to be hotspots,” said an officer aware of the plans.
Security agencies have now started their countdown to the election day and plan to give their bill to the electoral body in March or April for funding.
Those aware of the plans said they don’t expect much activities in terms of violence as compared to the past polls in 2007, 2013 and 2017.
The revelations came on Friday when the service launched manual outlining guidelines for managing the upcoming general election.
The Election Security Management Manual for Police Commanders details measures that police are expected to take under various circumstances during the elections to provide the security of the poll.
Speaking in Nakuru during the launch of the handbook, Interior Cabinet Secretary said the handbook demonstrated the efforts the NPS has invested in its preparedness for the polls.
“We have been talking a lot about the election security management manual and the preparations that have been done to prepare our police officers to manage our electoral process. It is very important to work in an institutionalised manner because that’s what demonstrates how a disciplined unit or disciplined service we are.”
The manual prescribes the principles of impartiality, equal treatment, accountability and rule of law by security agents and provides procedures for complaints against election security personnel.
The CS scoffed at claims that the government through the police was scheming to usurp the role of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.
“We do not conduct elections. Elections are conducted by the IEBC. We only support the Commission to conduct elections. When the chairman of the IEBC tells us how many officers are needed to support his process of conducting the elections, we will be ready and present to do exactly that,” he said.
The reference handbook contains response mechanisms to election security in a collaborative and coordinated manner among NPS agencies.
It outlines approaches to the functions of the police during elections, maintenance of law and order; provision of security during the election process; detection of election offences and bringing of offenders to justice.
It also takes into account the impact insecurity has on the integrity of elections and identifies issues of public disorder, criminal gangs, political incitement, election-related violence and election offences as potential threats.
The CS defended the police against claims of not doing enough to contain rival gangs in political rallies saying officers will not be misused to arbitrate disputes around the distribution of campaign cash bribes and other merchandise.
“There is a new trend we are beginning to see of ‘crowd consultants’ in our country. If you want a crowd, you pay some people to mobilize groups to your meeting. When conflicts emerge, police officers cannot be blamed for not doing anything in such cases. It's not our job, as the security sector to mediate bribery contracts.”
“If you go to this rally and that rally and promise millions and billions, which you don’t give people, we cannot hold surety for your false promises,” he said.
The manual also provides for the mobilization of additional security agencies including the Kenya Prison Service, Kenya Wildlife Service, Kenya Forest Service among others to support the police during elections.
The development of the manual was funded by the British government through UKAid with the input made possible by collaboration between the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), Judiciary Working Committee on Election Preparations, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC).
The election cycle in Kenya is high pressure, competitive and often emotive.
Mutyambai said has over 44 tribes with different customs and beliefs and as such security challenges are dynamic and factors change from one county to the other depending on tribal composition during elections.
“This manual considers the potential impact of insecurity on the integrity of elections and provides a set of considerations regarding election security planning and management practices or procedures,” he said.