Administration Police

It is the equivalent of the General Service Unit of the Kenya Police Service. It is also known as Radi (lightning) in Swahili. In the year 2000, with Senior Assistant Commissioner of Administration Police Mr. Davis Mawinyi as the first Commanding Officer, Mr. Elijah Osodo, AIG, succeeded.

Throughout the 1960s Administration Police (AP) was rapidly deployed regularly to fight the shifta menace in North Eastern Kenya. It was deployed to curb rampant poaching in the 1970s and 80s. It was also deployed to combat lawlessness in the northern Rift Valley region in the 1980s.

The AP operational deployment was initially composed of officers seconded from other divisions, and APTC (Administration Police Training College) staff and coursemen to counter specific hostilities.

Ad hoc units were formed within the AP to address specific localized situations. These include the Anti-Shifta Unit, formed in 1980 based at Garissa District, the Anti-Bandit Unit, formed in 1986 based in Tana River and Lamu districts; and the Rapid Anti-Bandit Unit, formed in 1997 based at AP Training College.

Due to these operations' short-term nature, they were often unsustainable and had limited success; thus, they established the Rapid Deployment Unit in 2000. The unit receives tactical training as well as regular training and refresher courses.

The unit receives support through additional tactical training by the U.S. Marines. As a result, it has a pool of specially trained and prepared personnel on standby, who possess ready supplies, transport, and support material for deployment.

RDU operates independently of Administration Police in its deployment so as not to affect normal operations. Now a Commandant heads it and may deploy personnel to Kenya to respond to any emergency or threat to law and order for a particular period.

BPU was formed on 1 July 2008 as Rural Border Patrol Unit with its first base at A.P Senior Staff College, Emali. The idea of a Border Patrol Unit was brought up by the then Senior Deputy Commandant (I) of AP Mr. Alhaji Omar Shurie, (SAIG, Egypt 2), a senior fieldcraft and tactics/jungle warfare instructor. Mr. Otieno, AIG, who once served as Deputy C.O. at Rapid Deployment Unit became the first C.O.

It was known as Border Patrol Unit, but due to limited facilities and equipment, it was not operationalized.

In September 2018, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced major plans to reorganize the National Police Service. This plan included, among others, the strengthing and renaming of RBPU to Border Police Unit.

The task of the BPU is to detect and prevent cross border crimes through border patrol and conducting terrorist interdiction operations.

BPU has its headquarters at Kanyonyo in Kitui County. It is now headed by a Commandant (Cmdt). Its Commandant is Mr. Abdulahi Aden (A.I.G).

Formations in the field known as Companies are each headed by an Officer of Superintendent (SP) rank. There are at least 20 such companies in the unit. Each Company has three platoons each headed by a Platoon Commander of Inspector's (IP) rank. Each platoon is further divided into sections of at least 10 personnel.

The unit has a training institution called the Border Patrol School, also based at Kanyonyo with Mr. Joshua Wambua, SSP, (a decorated jungle warfare/ ballistics/ forensics instructor) as the C.O. Its instructors are trained both locally and internationally and striving to be a leading border patrol and border operations training school in Eastern and Central Africa.

The unit has two specialized teams, the "Marine unit"- BORSOPTS – Border and Sea Operations Team and a Special Weapons and Tactics Team. These teams have had successful field operations within the country, including the Yumbis attack of 2015.

In terms of equipment and logistics, the unit has moved miles away and is now ahead of its mother unit the, Rapid Deployment Unit. Recentlyntly the National Police Service acquired Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) from China's Defense Corp Norinco, which is a great milestone in the modernization of the Police.

The Anti-Stock Theft Unit was established in 1965 as part of the Kenya Police.[10] Anti-Stock Theft Unit became a unit of the Administration Police in 2018. The Commandant of the Gilgil based Anti-stock Theft Unit now reports directly to the Deputy Inspector General APS.

Presently, the unit has 13 field companies, with three platoons each, one mounted company, and a headquarters company. Field companies are deployed mainly in the pastoral areas of Rift Valley and Eastern Regions. The Mounted Company breeds and trains horses and camels for police work. The number of Anti-stock Theft Unit personnel stands at 2,500 and the same is being increased to reach 5,000.

Security of Government Buildings Unit (SGB) was established in 1977 to provide security for Government Buildings within Nairobi Area. The unit was then known as Government Buildings Security (GBS). It was a subunit of AP headed by an Officer Commanding (OC). A year later, it was renamed to SGB (Security of Government Buildings Unit).

In 1992, the unit was further strengthened and was now headed by a Commanding Officer (CO), and by 2005, the commander had been upgraded to Commandant.

• Bodyguards – Provision of close protection, as directed by the Government.
• Residence security – 24-hour maximum security to those accorded the service.
• Protection of Vital Government Installations/Institutions.
• Back-up armed sentries to designated Government Buildings and Installations.
• Cash in Transit for Government Institutions/Private Firms.

Critical Infrastructure Protection Unit was formed in 2015 following increased threats to critical infrastructure such as power lines, fiber optic lines, roads, and data centers.[11] The unit is the largest one in the Administration Police with offices throughout the country. This unit is headquartered in Athi River.

• Protection of government buildings and data centers (Courts, Huduma Centers, government offices, KRA's one-stop border points, etc.);
• Protection of electricity sector including power lines, substations, off-grid generation stations, repeater stations, data centers, and fiber optics;
• Protection of energy sector including oilfields, oil pipelines, spur lines, and flowline control rooms, refined petroleum storage tanks, pump stations, auxiliary equipment, cathodic and radio networks ;
• Protection of ICT sector installation networks (Fiber optic cables, submarine cables, telecommunication lines, and posts );
• Protection of water points (storage water tanks);
• Protection of technical and learning institutions;
• Protection of banks;
• Protection of cash in transit;
• Surveillance and protection against threats of use of force, terror, espionage, sabotage, cybercrime, vandalism, and other crimes targeted on information transmitted via critical infrastructure assets.