Macharia Njeru, chairperson of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (Ipoa), arrived at State House Gate A by 6am on September 14, 2015, with his vice-chairperson, Jedidah Ntonyai.

The previous evening, a senior police officer had called Mr Njeru and directed him to report to State House for a meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta. Although the officer did not disclose the agenda, Mr Njeru had an idea of what awaited him.

Hours earlier, he and other Ipoa commissioners had met then Deputy President William Ruto at his Harambee Annex office from 2.30pm. The five-hour meeting had one message: Ipoa must drop a case challenging the recruitment of 10,000 police officers.

“The meeting started at 2.30pm and continued until 7.30pm. The DP insisted that we (Ipoa) must withdraw the pending court case, but I remained firm. I told him that we were not fighting the government but upholding the rule of law,” Mr Njeru said in an interview.

After the call summoning him to State House, Mr Njeru called Ms Ntonyai and asked her to accompany him. “We (Ipoa commissioners) had a policy that no commissioner would honour any invitation by government without consulting the Board. On this night, I decided to apply this regulation, and that is why I insisted that my vice-chair must accompany me to the meeting,” Mr Njeru told the Nation on Thursday.

Diffuse tension

Security staff at Gate A initially refused to let Ms Ntonyai in because she was not an official invitee. Mr Njeru insisted he would not enter without her. After security officers made calls, she was cleared. The two were ushered into a boardroom, where they waited for the President. Soon, they were joined by members of the National Security Council and senior National Police Service (NPS) officers.

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The meeting began with an angry President. “He (the President) did not even greet me. He was angry and went ahead to ask me if I was now the Commander-in-Chief,” Mr Njeru said.

Former Independent Policing Oversight Authority, Macharia Njeru at a past event.

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

Mr Kenyatta then asked: “Were we elected together? Did I see your picture in the ballot box?”

“I told him I did not understand what allegations I was facing,” Mr Njeru said. Hoping to defuse the tension, Mr Njeru asked the President to provide a list of specific issues, while maintaining that Ipoa was executing its constitutional mandate.

The security chiefs and senior police officers watched in silence until Mr Kenyatta turned to then Inspector-General Joseph Boinett.

Former Inspector General of Police Mr Joseph Boinett.

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

“The police boss did not mention anything. He went mute. At this point one of the security chiefs interjected and told the President that the matter should be addressed at a separate forum,” Mr Njeru said.

The meeting ended at around 10am, leaving Mr Njeru exhausted.

Former Retired President Uhuru Kenyatta State House spokesperson Kanze Dena.

Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group

Kanze Dena Mararo, Mr Kenyatta’s former secretary of communication, told the Nation on Friday that the former President would not comment on the story.

Later that afternoon, Mr Njeru called Mr Boinett to discuss the State House meeting. He said he told the police boss that Ipoa was merely executing its mandate, whether challenging the recruitment process or investigating officers accused of crimes. Mr Boinett suggested that, to reduce friction between Ipoa and the NPS, the authority should notify him in advance of investigations into officers accused of misconduct.

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Mr Njeru said he agreed, noting that he was required to notify the Inspector-General of investigations and their progress. He said tension between the two institutions subsequently eased, at least over investigations into officers accused of criminal or professional misconduct. Mr Boinett declined to comment when contacted by the Nation this week.

Mr Njeru said he had anticipated pressure because the recruitment case had put Ipoa at odds with the Executive. The authority’s objection was to how the exercise was conducted.

At State House, he said the President’s anger centred on Ipoa’s decision to challenge the process. The presence of senior security officials and police commanders heightened the pressure. Mr Njeru said he sought to keep the discussion focused on Ipoa’s legal mandate, telling the President that the authority was not fighting the government but ensuring that policing complied with the law.

State House meeting

The intervention by a security chief ended the confrontation, allowing the matter to be considered in another forum. Mr Njeru said his subsequent conversation with Mr Boinett helped establish an arrangement for future investigations. The arrangement did not require Ipoa to seek permission before investigations, but provided for notification to the Inspector-General, which Mr Njeru regarded as important to preserving its independence.

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The recruitment dispute continued in court. Ipoa maintained that the law did not permit the commission to delegate the exercise in the manner it had done. The courts eventually agreed with the authority. But the saga was far from over. The morning after the State House meeting, at around 7am, Mr Njeru received another call. It was Dr Ruto. “He went straight to the point and told me to withdraw the case that had challenged the police recruitment.”

Mr Njeru said the then Deputy President warned that unspecified action would be taken against him if Ipoa did not withdraw the High Court case, which had blocked 10,000 recruits from reporting for training.

Ipoa had sued the National Police Service Commission, which advertised the recruitment, and the NPS. It argued that the exercise had been irregularly delegated to sub-county committees, yet the law allowed such delegation only to the Inspector-General of Police. It also alleged that the process was marred by corruption and other malpractices.

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The Nation contacted State House spokesperson Hussein Mohamed about the September 13 meeting and the September 15 phone call, but he did not return calls or respond to text messages.

Revisiting the September 15 incident on X last week, Mr Njeru said Dr Ruto told him the government would treat him like opposition politicians if the case was not withdrawn. He refused to budge.

Mr Njeru believes his defiance helped limit Executive interference with Ipoa for the rest of his six-year term, which ended in 2018.

“None of them (Uhuru and Ruto) called me again until I left office. There was no further attempt to interfere with our work,” Mr Njeru said. Ipoa’s case succeeded at both the High Court and Court of Appeal. For Mr Njeru, what was viewed as defiance was simply Ipoa taking a stand — something he says current and future commissioners must do.

“If you allow the Executive to interfere with your work, they will run you over,” he said.

Mr Njeru has urged Ipoa to use technology, including geolocation — using global positioning system and internet protocol addresses to establish the location of electronic devices — to trace police officers suspected of violating the law.

An experienced lawyer, Mr Njeru was Ipoa’s first chairperson, serving from 2012 to 2016. He was also the Law Society of Kenya’s representative to the Judicial Service Commission from 2019 to 2024 and served as its vice-chairperson from 2022 to 2024.

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kamaina@ke.nationmedia.com