OPED: Kenyan MPs must reject attempts to undermine police oversight body
By Abdullahi Boru Halakhe
Imagine if police were given powers to deny the body that oversees them access to information. Would that oversight body be effective at its job? You must have answered no. This is exactly what will happen to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) if MPs endorse proposed change to the IPOA Act 2011, the law that governs the Authority’s operations. The Statute (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, 2016, which sneaks in proposed amendments to the IPOA Act 2011, introduces an exception to Section 7(1)(vii) of the current Act, which gives the Authority the power to “summon any serving or retired police officer to appear before it and to produce any document, thing or information that may be considered relevant to the function of the authority”, by adding the words “provided that where the document, thing or information is privileged, the procedure for producing the privileged document, thing or information shall be complied with.
-
Date:
-
17 February 2017