Police Dismiss Viral List Claiming New OCSs

The National Police Service said on August 5 that a document circulating online and claiming to announce new Officers Commanding Stations across Nairobi County was fake. The service said the list did not originate from NPS and urged the public not to share or rely on it. The clarification came as online discussion around police deployments in Nairobi intensified following recent announcements around the Nairobi Metropolitan policing framework. NPS said official information would be issued only through its recognized communication channels. ### What exactly did police say was false? The National Police Service said the viral document purported to announce fresh OCS appointments for police stations across Nairobi County, but the service disowned it as fake. In its clarification, NPS said the notice was not an official communication from the service and should be ignored. The circulating list was reported by local outlets as naming officers for more than 30 stations in Nairobi. (the-star.co.ke) Some reports said the list identified 33 stations, which helped fuel its spread on social media before the police response. ### Why did the post gain attention so quickly? Nairobi has been at the center of renewed discussion about policing changes since President William Ruto said on July 14 that the rollout of the Nairobi Metropolitan Policing Framework would begin in the coming days. (the-star.co.ke) He said the initiative would emphasize community participation and coordinated security operations across the capital region. (flashnews.co.ke) Recent reporting has also linked the broader plan to a new Nairobi Metropolitan Police Unit, with Kamukunji Police Station identified in July as the proposed headquarters site for the unit. That wider public focus on deployments and command structures appears to have created an opening for unverified appointment claims to circulate, though NPS itself did not give a reason for the document’s spread. (capitalfm.africa) ### What is an OCS, and who controls those appointments? The Kenya Police Service is one of the services that make up the National Police Service under Kenya’s Constitution and the National Police Service Act, according to the official NPS website. Station command falls within that formal police structure, which is headed independently by the Inspector General of Police. The NPS website identifies Inspector General Douglas Kanja as the head of the service’s command structure and lists Jogoo House in Nairobi as the service’s headquarters. (kenyans.co.ke) That is the institutional channel through which official notices, public statements and service information are ordinarily issued. ### Did police publish a replacement list? Kimani Ichung’wah, the National Assembly majority leader, called for the official Nairobi OCS list to be made public in order to counter the false document circulating online, according to local reporting on August 6. (nationalpolice.go.ke) The available reports reviewed did not show NPS publishing a verified replacement list at the time of the denial. (nationalpolice.go.ke) The absence of an official replacement document left the NPS denial as the clearest public position: the viral list was fake, and the public should disregard it. That is an inference from the police statement and the reporting available as of August 6. ### Where did police tell people to look instead? The National Police Service told the public to rely on official channels for authentic notices and updates. (msn.com) Its website lists the service’s main contact details, including Jogoo House “A” in Nairobi, a public telephone line and an official email address. As of August 6, the NPS homepage and related official pages remained the main public-facing sources for service announcements, while the Interior Ministry and State House had separately continued to discuss the Nairobi Metropolitan policing rollout. (the-star.co.ke) Any further notice on Nairobi station command changes would be expected to appear through those official channels rather than through unsigned viral documents. That expectation is an inference based on the NPS warning and the structure described on its official pages. (nationalpolice.go.ke)