The highly contested national police recruitment scheduled for Monday is now set to move forward after the High Court on Friday temporarily lifted the conservatory orders that had earlier halted the process.
Justice Bahati Mwamuye suspended the orders issued on November 10, 2025, restoring the situation that existed before the recruitment was paused. The decision paves the way for the exercise, which had been thrown into uncertainty following a petition by activist Eliud Matindi. The ruling also eases immediate pressure on agencies coordinating the nationwide intake, previously caught in a legal dispute over the authority to manage recruitment.
The judge directed the 1st Interested Party to serve its application and the latest court orders on all relevant parties and to file an affidavit of service ahead of a case management session set for November 17, 2025.
Earlier this week, Justice Mwamuye had halted the police recruitment following Matindi’s petition, which challenged the legality of the exercise being conducted by the Inspector General of Police (IG). In his petition, Matindi argued that the National Police Service Commission (NPSC), not the IG, is constitutionally mandated under Article 246(3)(a) to handle recruitment into the National Police Service.
Court records show that the NPSC had initially announced plans to recruit 10,000 police constables on September 5, 2025, citing its constitutional and statutory mandate. However, this exercise was suspended on October 2, 2025, following a separate court ruling in Petition No. E196 of 2025 (Harun Mwau v. Inspector General of Police & Others).
The IG later issued a fresh recruitment advertisement on November 4, 2025, scheduling a new intake across 422 centres nationwide for November 17, 2025. This followed a court dispute between the NPS and NPSC, during which the High Court affirmed that the NPSC had the constitutional authority to conduct recruitment. In a ruling on October 30, 2025, the court declared the NPSC advertisement unconstitutional, emphasizing that the recruitment mandate lies with the NPS.
Matindi’s petition contended that the IG’s renewed recruitment drive was unconstitutional, asserting that the IG cannot undertake recruitment without express delegation from the NPSC as required under Section 10(2) of the National Police Service Commission Act.
