- Kanja emerged top after interviews by the National Police Service Commission last week
- Kanja is a specialist in firearms and has served as the Police Service Chief Armoury.
- In 2019, he commanded GSU officers in a rescue mission following the Dusit2 Hotel attack
The commandant General Service Unit Douglas Kirocho Kanja is the new Deputy Inspector General of Kenya Police.
Kanja emerged top after interviews by the National Police Service Commission last week.
He takes over from Edward Mbugua who retired from the service. Kanja, a career police officer, rose through the ranks within the GSU to take over as the commandant of the support unit. He was named the commandant of GSU in 2018.
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The acting DIG Abdallah Komesha was moved back to his former base at the DCI and named the head of investigations bureau. He took over from Eliud Lagat who was named the new commandant of GSU.
The recently named head of operations at Kenya police Nyale Munga was moved to Kiganjo police college and named the commandant. The new director of operations at KPS is Ranson Lolmodoni.
The outgoing commandant of Kiganjo Bruno Shioso was moved and named the Commandant Kenya Coast Guard Service. Kanja had served as Kilifi county police boss for years.
GSU is the single biggest, elite and key unit in police operations with a population of about 12,000. The head of operations at GSU was named the commandant of GSU.
Kanja is a specialist in firearms and has served as the Police Service Chief Armoury. In 2019, he commanded GSU officers in a rescue mission following the Dusit2 Hotel attack. The well-coordinated response by his team was widely praised. The first DIG under the 2010 constitution was Grace Kaindi in 2012, followed by Joel Kitili and Edward Mbugua.
He comes into office at a time when the service is facing a number of challenges, which he is familiar with. They include poor working conditions, low salaries and poor morale.
As the DIG, the holder of the officer is the most powerful as he or she controls almost 70,000 personnel of the more than 100,000 officers under NPS. The other personnel are in Administration Police Service and DCI. The DIG KPS is in charge of all eight regional police commanders, 47 county commanders, formation commanders, Sub County Commanders, Officer Commanding Station (OCS) and all uniformed officers.
He also controls the General Service Unit, traffic department and Kenya Police College in Kiganjo.
