The National Police Service (NPS) has asked degree holders to stay away from the police recruitment exercise that is set to start tomorrow, Thursday, March 24.

The service says that it will not recruit university graduates in an exercise where it plans to hire 5,000 new police constables. NPS said that this is due to a past mistake where it recruited graduates; a move that threw it into a pay dispute.

Following the previous disputes, the NPS now says that it will target only non-degree holders in its coming recruitment exercise.

“We are recruiting police constables with a minimum qualification of D+ in their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education [KCSE] exam and it remains as such. This is because there is a particular job group for the advertised positions. We are advising those with degrees to wait for other positions to avoid labour issues,” NPSC official John ole Moyaki said during a pre-recruitment session in Kabarnet.

Commissioner Moyaki, however, noted that they are not out to discourage graduates from entering the police force but to allow them to look for other jobs that match their education qualifications.

He asked for the potential police recruits to adhere to the set qualification in order to avoid a lot of issues during the recruitment exercise.

“We are not discouraging graduates from joining the police service, but there are better opportunities and higher job groups that would suit them, apart from the police,” he said.