Inspector-General of Police Douglas Kanja has warned that the National Treasury’s move to reduce the police allocation for the 2025/26 financial year by Sh40.96 billion will affect police operations, as he urged MPs to reinstate the reduced amounts.
The cuts include Sh1.2 billion that IG Kanja says will “critically” affect strategic and specialised supplies like ammunition and the new police uniform.
The estimates before the National Assembly show that the National Police Service (NPS) has been allocated Sh125.3 billion for the next financial year.
“Even though the NPS recurrent expenditure has increased, budget cuts have been affected in areas which are core to the police operations. Further cuts on development have affected very critical projects,” said IG Kanja.
The IG spoke as he appeared before the Administration and Internal Security Committee of the National Assembly.
He revealed that the reduced allocations will affect the police operations at a time when the country is faced with various internal threats.
This came as the security committee members, led by Mount Elgon MP Fred Kapondi, challenged the NPS to focus on priority areas and shelve the many planned development projects.
The MPs also questioned the 2.8 billion towards the Multi-National Security Support Mission (MNSSM) in Haiti, leaving Sh21.3 billion for police operations and maintenance.
“How is the Haiti mission funded by the exchequer? I thought it was funded by the United Nations,” wondered Mr Kapondi.
The NPS underfunded budget includes Sh29.89 billion in recurrent and Sh11.07 billion in development.
Of the entire NPS allocation, Sh102.5 billion, which accounts for about 82.8 percent, has been budgeted for personnel emoluments and insurance costs for medical schemes from private insurance providers.
The core and strategic areas that stand to be affected include the purchase of ammunition and accessories, new police uniforms, and recruitment of constables.
The others are the equipping of the forensic laboratory at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the mobility of the police, vehicle maintenance, acquisition of the police hospital in Nairobi’s Mbagathi area, and the modernization of the police equipment.
In its proposed budget to the National Treasury, NPS had planned for the recruitment of 10,000 police constables by December 2025 for Sh6.4 billion.
However, the figure was reduced to Sh2.9 billion, out of which a further Sh324 million increased the funding shortfall to Sh3.5 billion.
This means that the recruitment will have to be reduced if the amounts are not reinstated. NPS had planned Sh3.83 billion for police uniforms, a specialised supply, which was reduced to Sh1.34 billion.
There was also a Sh14.42 billion budgeted for security operations, but the amount was slashed to Sh6.4 billion as per the printed estimates, leaving a financing gap of Sh8.1 billion.
The affected areas under police operations include the purchase of police equipment and supplies that saw Sh489.6 million slashed off.
“The cut will mainly affect the purchase of security supplies, including ammunition and accessories,” said IG Kanja.
There is also the Sh306.2 billion that was cut from the fuel, oil, and lubricants budget, with an implication on the police operations “which require constant mobility.”
Under the routine maintenance of motor vehicles, Sh111.4 million has been chopped off, meaning that it will “severely” affect the NPS officers’ mobility.
The reduced allocations towards the operations also affect the police modernisation that has seen Sh200 million cuts, which IG Kanja says will “severely affect the planned procurement of crowd and riot control equipment in readiness for the 2027 general elections.”
The slashed NPS allocations also affect domestic travel and subsistence that have Sh156.9 million copped off, which the IG says will affect “critical” operations of the police across the country, with training expenses reduction by Sh18.5 million impacting the service training of officers, which is a prerequisite for promotion.
Failure to equip the national forensic laboratory at the DCI saw Sotik MP Francis Sigei question the seriousness of the government towards a project that was to be at the heart of forensic investigations within the region.
“We, as a government, are not serious in investing in the laboratory. We know it can generate more resources and help manage crime in the country, but we do not want to fully operationalize it,” said Mr Sigei.
Although the NPS had proposed Sh1.5 billion towards the laboratory, Sh125 million was allocated.
Also suffering is the establishment of the basic facilities and refurbishment of existing structures at the NPS DCI academy, whose allocation had been proposed at Sh155 million, but only Sh10 million was provided in the estimates.
