A power struggle at the Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) has led to the sacking of CEO Maina Njoroge barely 15 months into the job after replacing Joel Mabonga who retired last year.
The Nation has reliably learnt that the board gave Mr Njoroge marching orders on Friday last week after resuming duty from a forced leave. Sources said that he had fallen out with a section of the board.
“You can’t pinpoint one thing and say this is why the CEO was fired. The board just wanted him out for no specific reason and it is now causing jitters,” said our source.
Sources said that some members of the board had been pushing for his sacking, arguing that they could not work with a CEO whom they did not hire.
The nine-member board, which Mr Njoroge was also part of as secretary, was sworn in on October 5 last year.
The CEO took office in the last days of the first IPOA board on April 18, four months before the new directors were sworn in. State House at that time tried to dissuade the board from selecting a new CEO just as their term was about to end but the pleas were ignored.
“This office has information that you are in the process of recruiting a chief executive officer, a process that may not be complete before May,” Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua wrote to the board on March 28 last year.
“It has therefore been decided that the process to fill the vacant position of CEO in your office be suspended until the incoming committee is in place,” he instructed.
However, the old board had its way and the chickens have now come home to roost. Unlike the old board, led by Mr Macharia Njeru, which worked on part-time basis, the new one is on full-time terms.
Insiders say this has generated friction between the board and the executive at IPOA. Some members of the board, which is led by Anne Makori, allegedly felt Mr Njoroge was incapable of pushing their agenda. Mrs Makori did not respond to our queries on Mr Njoroge’s sacking.
“I was engaged at the time you called. Let me call you once I’m out of traffic,” she told us last night.
IPOA receives an annual budget of about Sh1 billion per year and there has been a push and pull on how to spend the money. Before his appointment, Mr Njoroge was the IPOA director of business services for five years. He also held the CEO’s position in an acting capacity for nine months between September 2013 to May 2014.
