Police to Taskforce: Better our perks, withdraw new uniforms, reinforce the fleet in the Northern Kenya
The Police have issued a list of grievances to the 23-member national task force appointed by President William Ruto on improvement on the welfare and other reforms of the National Police Service and Kenya Prisons Service led by former Chief Justice David Maraga.
Among the issues they want addressed include salary appraisals and allowances so as to match other security organs based on their ranks as opposed to the region of deployment and the duration of their training increased from nine to 12 months.
“Once we finish with the recommendations, we are supposed to come up with an implementation matrix where we will say that this needs to be done by this body and we will give them time frames. If it is something touching on salaries, we will make recommendations to the salaries commission and give them timelines,” Maraga said.
The men in blue also want the scraping off of the new uniforms and demand the withdrawal of a fleet of Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) that are reportedly substandard and unable to offer sufficient protection.
“On uniforms, officers want the Persian blue kits replaced with the Ethiopian uniform consisting of navy blue skirts and trousers and light blue shirts for general duty officers while Administration Police will retain their uniform. They also want the new General Service Unit (GSU) combat gear gazetted and solely worn by GSU personnel, same as those worn by the Special Operations Group personnel, as National Government Administration Officers stick to their designated uniform,” stated Maraga.
The police want the fleet to be substituted with 100 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles that provide greater protection to officers responding to banditry and terror threats in the insecurity prone regions of Northern Kenya among other regions which are superior and designed to protect users from Improvised Explosive Device (IEDs).
Recently, the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) Chairperson Eliud Kinuthia applauded the government for instituting the reforms taskforce to handle the social welfare of the police as he urged those working under deplorable areas and conditions to come out and air their grievances to the taskforce so as to be addressed.
“This taskforce in place is mandated to look into the social welfare of the police officers and we are hopeful that it will be able to address the key issues deterring the police…. Police are among the best renumerated civil servants in the country with a basic of around Sh37,000,” observed Kinuthia.
However, Kinuthia’s comments on police constables’ salaries caused an uproar across social media with some officers claiming that the chairman had less information of what entailed as police pay.
The recommendations made by the task force will be based on oral and written submissions received from relevant agencies, individual officers and members of the public.
The police made their oral submissions to the task force on January 30, 2023 with a technical team led by the Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome showcasing some of the equipment and weapons that are in need of upgrading during the start of the nationwide public participation exercise at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi.
According to the taskforce mandate as by the President, the task force is expected to draft recommendations for improving officers’ terms and conditions of service as well as identify legal, policy, institutional and operational constraints that hinder effective delivery of service by police and prisons officers.
