One of the top hierarchy changes in the National Police Service (NPS) was the decision to grant the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Zipporah Nderitu an award of appreciation for her leadership and many contributions to the humanitarian cause.
Formerly assigned as a Police Advisor at the International Peace Support Training Centre (IPSTC), Ms. Nderitu has been promoted from Police Constable to SSP. Her journey was a combination of having a disciplined lifestyle, conducting her duties professionally, and sticking to her excellence pattern. She has been a police officer at Kileleshwa, Buruburu, and Thika East Police Stations with corresponding duties in police training colleges where she has taught the staff members for a long time.
Nderitu has the identify of being accomplished in academics and attained Bachelor of Science in Criminology and about to obtain a Master’s Degree in Strategic Leadership and Security Studies. In addition to that, she has also achieved various globally recognized certificates from institutions in Ghana, Uganda, Italy, and other places.
It is under Nderitu’s leadership that POLICARE has been launched, a program that presents integrated medical, legal, psychosocial and protective services to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence being united in one place.
The facilities have become a symbol of her revolutionary leadership in policing. Her work has received commendations from all over the world. In 2016, Queen Elizabeth II gave her the title of a Serving Sister of the Most Venerable Order of St John.
She has also been praised by the Franklin Police Department in the U.S. and the U.S. Senate. In 2023, she garnered the International Association of Women Police (IAWP) worldwide award in New Zealand, presented to her by President William Ruto. In 2025, she was recognized as one of the World Humanitarian Heroes on World Humanitarian Day.
Furthermore, her name was among those of police officers who had done the best at the Outstanding Police Service Awards (OPSA), according to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), 2014. Besides her official career, she mentors young people, and she participates in public security forums and is the Vice Chairperson of the Professional Criminologists Association of Kenya.
Nderitu was branded by the NPS as ‘a paragon of perfection in all her endeavors, an example for the many, and vindication that resilience plus determination is capable of engendering lasting change.’
