The Employment and Labour Relations Court has temporarily stopped the planned recruitment of 10,000 police constables that was set to begin on October 3, following a legal petition filed by retired police officer and former Kilome MP Harun Mwau.

Mwau moved to court accusing the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) of overstepping its constitutional mandate by taking over the recruitment role, which he claims belongs solely to the Inspector General (IG) and the National Police Service (NPS).

In his petition, Mwau argues that the NPSC does not qualify as a national security organ as defined under Article 239(1) of the Constitution, and therefore cannot lawfully recruit officers for such an organ.

He cites Article 238(2)(d) of the Constitution, which states that recruitment into national security agencies must reflect the diversity of the Kenyan people in equitable proportions.

“NPSC cannot purport to recruit for a national security organ, since the Constitution clearly assigns the recruitment role to the security organs themselves,” Mwau submitted.

According to the NPSC’s initial plan, the recruits were to be enlisted within a week and deployed across the Kenya Police Service (KPS) and the Administration Police Service (APS).

General Duty officers would have been trained at the National Police Service College Main Campus in Kiganjo, Nyeri County, while the General Service Unit (GSU) would have trained at the Embakasi “B” Campus in Nairobi and Magadi in Kajiado County. APS recruits were to report to the Embakasi “A” Campus.

Mwau maintains that the NPSC has no constitutional authority to recruit sworn police officers, arguing that its role is limited to human resource functions involving civilian staff within the service, such as accountants and IT personnel—not uniformed officers under the command of the IG.

“If the NPSC’s actions are not halted immediately, they are likely to undermine constitutional principles and jeopardize national security,” Mwau argued in his application for an interim order.

Justice Hellen Wasilwa, presiding over the matter, granted interim orders halting the recruitment exercise and directed Mwau to serve the petition to the NPSC and other respondents.