Administration Police

The Administration Police (abbreviated as A.P.) is a paramilitary security unit belonging to the Government of Kenya. It was formed in 1958 when it took over from the Tribal Police, which had been established through an ordinance in 1929.

The Administration Police is a department under the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government. Its headquarters are in Nairobi. The PC Chapter 63 of the (former) Laws of Kenya states that the Police Force includes the force defined in section 2 of the Police Act as well as the Administration Police Force established under the Administration Police Act; Chapter 75 Section 2 states that the term Police officer means either/both a Police officer and/or an Administration Police officer. The Administration Police force is headed by Deputy Inspector of Police (DIG) Samuel M. Arachi.[1]

The Administration Police has three major units:

The AP is equipped to tackle any eventuality regarding law breaking or emergency. It also has an anti-riot unit, an anti-stock theft unit to deal with livestock theft, a border security unit, and officers to deal with other violations of the law.

Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU)

It is the equivalent of the General Service Unit of the Kenya Police Service. It is also known as Radi (lightning) in Swahili. It was formerly headed by SACAP D J Mawinyi as the first C.O, then by AIG Mr. Elijah Osodo and now currently by AIG Mr Njeru.

Throughout the 1960s it was deployed regularly to fight the shifta menace in North Eastern Kenya. it was also deployed to curb rampant poaching in the 1970s and 80s. It was deployed to combat lawlessness in the northern Rift Valley region in the 1980s The RDU was initially composed of officers seconded from other divisions, as well as APTC (Administration Police Training College) staff and coursemen to specifically counter certain hostilities. Ad-hoc units were also formed within the RDU to address specific localized situations. These include the Anti-Shifta Unit, formed in 1980 and based at Garissa District, the Anti-Bandit Unit, formed in 1986 and based in Tana River and Lamu districts, and the Rapid Anti-Bandit Unit, formed in 1997, and based at AP Training College.

Due to the short term nature of these operations, they were often unsustainable and had limited success. To counter this, the Rapid Deployment Unit was set up in 2000. The Unit receives support through additional tactical training by the U.S. Marines. As a result, it has specifically trained and prepared personnel on standby, who possess ready supplies, transport and support materiel for deployment. The unit receives regular training and refresher courses. It operates independently of Administration Police in their area of deployment, and so it does not affect normal operations.

The unit operates under a commanding officer, and may be deployed to any part of Kenya to respond for a limited duration to any emergency or threat to law and order.

A.P Rural Border Patrol Unit

The unit was formed on 1 July 2008. The unit has its headquarters based at Kanyonyo in Kitui-county. It was first based at Emali A.P Senior Staff College and the idea of a border patrol unit was actually brought up by the then Senior Deputy Commandant One of A.P(SAIG)/(Egypt 2) Mr Alhaji Omar Shurie who is a senior field craft and tactics/jungle warfare instructor and was to be known as border patrol unit. But due limited facilities and equipment it was not fully operational by then. It is headed by a Commanding Officer with AIG Otieno who also served as Deputy C.O at Rapid Deployment Unit as the first C.O. Currently headed by SSP Gikonyo. The border patrol unit has a training unit called the Border Patrol School also based at Kanyonyo with SSP Mr Joshua Wambua(a decorated jungle warfare/ballistics/forensics instructor) as the C.O. Its instructors trained both locally and internationally and still striving to be a leading border patrol and border operations training school in eastern and central Africa. A.P Border Patrol Unit also has specialized teams, that is the 'Marine unit'BORSOPTS - Border and sea operations and a 'Special Weapons and Tactics Team' which have already had successful field ops within the country including the Yumbis attack 2015. In terms of general equipment and logistics, the border patrol unit has moved miles away and is now ahead of its mother unit the Rapid Deployment Unit.


Nevertheless, the Administration Police still is the leading security provider in Kenya. Recently the National Police Service acquired armoured personnel carriersAPC from China's Defense Corp Norinco which is actually a great milestone in modernisation of the Police.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Administration Police Home Page". Administration Police. Retrieved 5 May 2016.

External links

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