Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has said police officers who are set to retire will be posted to the counties where they want to retreat to familiarise themselves with their communities after working away for decades.
Mr Murkomen said the welfare of police officers is crucial to the Kenyan Kwanza administration, adding that no police officer will stay in one station for more than three years.
“After serving for decades, we will post police officers to counties they wish to retire to so that they start familiarizing themselves with the villagers or communities before they retire. This is good news,” he said.
For instance, he said if a police officer from Turkana is first deployed to Taita Taveta where he marries and he is later transferred to Kisumu when he is on the verge of exiting the service, he will either go back to his home county or decide to retire to Taita Taveta.
“If he chooses Taita Taveta we will allow it so that he can come familiarize with the community in advance,” he added as he wound up his week-long Coast security tour.
The CS said the state will build more police stations and housing for its security officers to ensure they live and work in dignified environments.
“I have been touring the Coast region and I have realized there are police officers stationed in particular areas for ages. But we have agreed that no police officer will be in one station for more than three years,” said the CS.
He said the move will ensure police do not familiarize themselves with suspected criminals and ensure they get experience working in different areas.
“Police officers will no longer be transferred to hardship areas as a punishment. Let the officer be punished and posted anywhere. All police officers are equal, you will be posted in an area and serve for three years before you are transferred elsewhere,” he added.
At the same time, CS Murkomen criticised the High Court ruling that declared the formation of a 23-member presidential task force to review police welfare unconstitutional.
CS Murkomen said the government will implement the taskforce despite the ruling by the High Court that stated that the former Chief Justice David Maraga-led committee was illegal as it violated constitutional provisions.
He said the ruling would affect plans to improve the terms and conditions of service and other reforms for members of the National Police Service and Prisons.
He said the government will work to ensure that the welfare of the officers is improved noting that the officers are facing challenges including poor salaries, inadequate equipment, underfunding, harsh working environment, and generally neglected officers’ welfare.
"We have challenges but we will continue to implement the taskforce recommendations. I hear there's a judge who ruled that the taskforce was not legally constituted. Some decisions are funny. Are they happy to see the welfare of even of those guarding him to remain the same?" he said.
He was speaking in Mwatate, Taita Taveta County when he was winding up his Coast region tour, where he held a town hall meeting and opened Kamtonga police station.
"The problems with the welfare of our officers is something known. Whether we would have constituted the taskforce or not. For someone to declare the taskforce illegal, we will continue to help these officers then I'm ready in contempt of court," he said.
For Taita Taveta County, the CS decried the high cases of Gender Based Violence especially sexual offences.
CS Murkomen tasked chiefs and their assistants to ensure that perpetrators face the law and be able to tame the cases that he noted are getting out of hand.
He warned the chiefs and their assistants that they would be held responsible if they failed to act on these cases.
"Where are the chiefs and the assistant chiefs? We must root out these vices. We will take on those who are not working. We will do a greater campaign to stop these crimes. Sex pests must be removed from the society," he said.
He also called on the community not to protect the perpetrators as most of the cases reported are incest in nature thus some receiving protection from the families.
"As the community do not protect these perpetrators. The community should be ready to call out these people because this seems to be a cultural issue and the femicide technical working group to address gender-based violence and femicide will come here to see how this will be addressed," he said.
On his part, Taveta MP John Bwire proposed the amendment laws to allow the government to purchase any vehicles for the National Government Administration Officers (Ngao) and police officers, especially in stations that do not have vehicles.
"We can even buy them second-hand vehicles because they are suffering. We can even share the cost of these vehicles between the government and NG-CDF," he said.
“This will ensure equity. We do not want a scenario whereby some are promoted after five years and others after 30 years,” said the CS.
In terms of mobility, Mr Murkomen said the state will lease 5000 vehicles for the National Administration.
He said the vehicles will be distributed fairly to different departments including Kenya Prisons Service, the National Police Service and the local administrators.
“In another three months, we will distribute the vehicles fairly targeting marginalized areas.
