The court said the Commission has no legal power to hire or fire police officers.
Justice Hellen Wasilwa delivered the ruling on Thursday, October 30, 2025. She explained that the duty of recruiting, training, and assigning police officers belongs only to the National Police Service (NPS), which is led by the Inspector General of Police, Douglas Kanja.
According to the judge, the NPSC had acted outside its powers when it advertised the recruitment in September. She said the Commission was only supposed to deal with policy, administrative, and oversight matters, not operational duties such as recruitment.
“A declaration is hereby issued that the recruitment by the national security organs under Article 232 of the Constitution can only be done by the national security organ itself and not by any other entity,” said Justice Wasilwa.
The judge also gave a permanent order stopping the NPSC from continuing with the recruitment or taking part in any related activity.
She added that any move by the Commission to recruit officers would interfere with the independence of the Inspector General.
The police recruitment exercise was supposed to start on October 3, 2025, after an advertisement published on September 19.
However, it was stopped by the court on October 2 after former MP John Harun Mwau filed a petition against NPSC and the Inspector General.
Mwau argued that the recruitment should not go on while the NPS and NPSC were in conflict over the police payroll and other administrative issues.
He said the disagreement created confusion about who had the real authority to handle the hiring process.
Justice Wasilwa agreed with him, saying that only the NPS has the right to recruit police officers under the Constitution.
The ruling now means the police recruitment exercise is null and void, and a new process will only take place under the control of the Inspector General.
The decision is expected to cause major changes in how police officers are hired in Kenya in the future.
