Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen and Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja are set to lead delegations to New York and London next week on a benchmarking trip ahead of the formation of a Nairobi Metropolitan Police Unit.

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"Next week, there is a delegation to New York and also to London, led by CS Murkomen and me," Sakaja said in an interview with Hot96 on Wednesday evening.

Sakaja said the government has held consultations with the New York Police Department and the city's mayor, London's Metropolitan Police and its mayor, and officials in Rome.

The unit is expected to be operational by July, but Sakaja said he was not confident the two levels of government would meet the deadline set by President William Ruto.

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"The president wanted it by July. I don't know if we will make it, but we are trying to do it as quickly as possible," he said.

Sakaja outlined how the unit would operate, saying it would be constitutionally answerable to the interior secretary while the county government managed its day-to-day operations.

"Just like in New York, it is under the mayor. On day-to-day deployment and strategic interventions, it responds to the city," he said.

The proposed arrangement is likely to raise questions over how a county-managed unit fits within Kenya's constitutional framework, under which policing is a national function.

Speaking after a high-level meeting on the unit's formation, Murkomen said the committee behind it was working on key foundational elements of the new structure, including the administrative framework, service standing orders and standard operating procedures that will guide the unit once it becomes operational.

Sakaja said the unit would comprise mostly young officers and would be driven largely by smart policing, including the use of cameras for crime detection and a board that would include residents' associations.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke