Petitions lodged separately by the National Police Service Commission and the Law Society of Kenya both fell at the Court of Appeal, whose bench delivered its determination on Friday, 16 October 2026 — a ruling that drew coverage from numerous media organisations.
Responsibility for recruiting, training, employing, deploying, promoting, suspending, and dismissing sworn officers was assigned by the court to the police service, operating beneath the Inspector-General's autonomous authority. Oversight of civilian personnel — spanning administrative, technical, accounting, information technology, legal, and medical roles — remains vested in the commission.
Under Article 246(3), the commission's authority was construed by the bench as extending only to those employed in a civilian capacity. Under Article 246(2), the Inspector-General and both Deputy Inspectors-General retain fixed seats alongside appointed members, leaving the overall composition of the commission unchanged.
A three-judge Court of Appeal panel, convening on 27 February 2026, put on hold the portion of the earlier ruling that had vested the Inspector-General with exclusive authority over promotions and dismissals, while leaving undisturbed any recruitment and training already in progress, and directed that the appeal be heard on an expedited basis within three months. A span of 231 days separated that order from the point at which the ruling was handed down.
According to a document published in June 2026 and drawing on anonymous sources, the commission had not convened in full since February, leaving a backlog of officers who had finished promotion training without formal confirmation of their new ranks. According to the same document, Deputy President Kithure Kindiki brought together Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, Inspector-General Douglas Kanja, his deputies, and commissioners for a meeting, though the gathering ended without any resolution being reached.
An unnamed source indicated that dropping the case had been under discussion, while a portion of the panel's civilian commissioners were reported to be opposed to that course of action. Those who attended the event did not have any statements attributed to them in the coverage.
Constitutional appeals routed through the Court of Appeal reach the Supreme Court as an automatic entitlement under Article 163(4)(a). As of the coverage examined, no filing announcement had been made public by either the commission or the Law Society.
Kanja, who holds the Inspector-General post, told reporters the ruling upheld constitutional principles. A dispute between the Inspector-General and the commission extends beyond other matters to include how payroll is managed and controlled. Facing a push from legislators in July 2025 for a payroll handover, Kanja held that the police service had acted within the bounds of the law.
The Inspector-General brought a High Court application in November 2025 to remove a recruitment suspension, with the State noting that staffing numbers had fallen across the service following a three-year pause on new appointments. A recruitment drive targeting 10,000 new constables forms the basis of a separate legal challenge, distinct from the ruling handed down by the Court of Appeal.
Figures posted on the commission's online platform during the late-August and early-September 2026 window showed that upwards of 6,000 recruits had completed training at Kiganjo, while a separate cohort of Administration Police recruits had finished their programme at Embakasi.
In the court's view, the Inspector-General's authority operates within defined limits, bound by constitutional obligations that encompass human rights protections and the rule of law. Under Article 245(7), the Inspector-General may be dismissed by the President on any of several listed grounds, among them a serious breach of constitutional obligations, misconduct of a gross nature, or a demonstrated lack of competence. Under Article 245(6), the holder of that position may serve no more than one term lasting four years.
Under Article 238(2)(d), national security organs are obligated to draw their personnel from across Kenya's population in a manner that reflects fair and proportional representation of the country's diversity. Under Article 246(4), the police service is required to mirror the breadth of Kenya's regional and ethnic makeup in how its personnel are drawn together. Under Article 101, the country's next nationwide vote is scheduled to take place in August 2027.
