IG Kanja unveils four new specialised police units

Key points

IG Douglas Kanja announced four new specialised police units.
Stated goals: efficiency, coordination and accountability.
NPS has expanded its organisational structure beyond previous directorates.
Public scrutiny will focus on oversight and clear command lines.

Inspector-General of Police Douglas Kanja has unveiled four new specialised units in a major reorganisation of the National Police Service, with the stated aims of improving efficiency, coordination and accountability.

Nation.Africa and Eastleigh Voice report that the structural expansion creates dedicated capacity for functions that previously sat awkwardly across directorates. Specialised units are a familiar tool in modern policing — but they only work when command lines, budgets and oversight are equally clear.

Kenya’s police service has faced sustained public scrutiny over response times, extrajudicial violence allegations, and coordination gaps between the Kenya Police Service and the Administration Police Service after successive reforms.

Officials typically argue that clearer specialisation reduces duplication: one unit for complex investigations, another for public-order planning, another for cyber-enabled crime, and so on. Civil society groups will watch whether the new units come with measurable performance indicators and independent complaint pathways.

Any reorganisation also raises practical questions for county commands: who deploys whom during protests, terror alerts or cross-county manhunts? Ambiguity at that level is where reforms often stall.

ZaKenya will publish the official unit names, mandates and leadership as the Service gazettes or circularises the full structure.