City Hall to hire 500 kanjos
City Hall is set to hire inspectorate officers, commonly known as kanjos, as it bids to plug the shortage of workforce in the security and compliance department.
Towards this, Sh180 million has been budgeted to recruit the new officers.
However, in the meantime, the county government will outsource services from other agencies for guarding services.
According to the county government, the recruitment will be carried out in a phased approach with an eye on having in place a proper succession plan in a department that is also struggling with aging staff.
Already, an advertisement for the positions has been made as City Hall seeks to have enough officers to deal with hawkers, parking boys, muggers, and petty offenders in the city.
“A total of 500 new officers will be recruited in the next financial year as the county looks at having the required workforce aimed at improved service delivery and prompt response,” reads in part the Nairobi County Annual Development Plan for the financial year ending June 30, 2023.
The sub-sector, comprising the city inspectorate department, investigation and information analysis department, and administration and support services, currently relies on 2,567 inspectorate and compliance officers to execute its mandate.
The officers are tasked with ensuring compliance to county by-laws and orders, provide security to county installations, properties and sentries.
They also investigate cases, gather intelligence, and analyze information on issues of interest to the county.
The Ann Kananu-led administration is also looking at spending Sh58 million towards capacity building for the officers by rolling out training programs for the staff.
In June this year, the county inked a deal with the National Police Service to train more than 1,000 of its inspectorate officers at Kiganjo Police Training College and Administration Police Training College, Embakasi.
According to Director of Enforcement Services Dr. Mark Leleruk, the four-month training was targeted at introducing a new culture of professionalism and integrity into the unit with graduate inspectorate courses knitted into the program.
“We intend to build the capacity of our staff through rolling out training programs as well as ensure proper succession plan. We intend to rebrand and get rid of the culture associated with corruption and brutality, especially when dealing with hawkers,” said Dr Leleruk.
But in the long term, the county government plans to build a Sh200 million modern training facility in the county that will be dedicated to training the county inspectorate officers.
Another Sh100 million will be spent on purchasing of uniforms for 1,000 lower cadre new recruits in a phased manner, a process that had already begun.