Senior police officers have been blamed for the delay in the release of more than Sh400 million owed to thousands of graduate police constables.

The officers have been accused of ignoring a directive by the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) to obey a court order on the matter.

Junior officers are pointing fingers at their bosses for allegedly ignoring at least five letters from NPSC directing them to withdraw Circular No. 1 of 2021 issued on December 23, 2021 stopping salary increment for graduate police constables.

The number of the affected officers has since grown to more than 5,000.

The Inspector General of Police, the two Deputy Inspectors General in charge of Kenya Police Service and Administration Police Service and their counterpart at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) have been accused of turning a deaf ear to orders issued by the court and the commission.

Five letters

Yesterday, the National Police Service (NPS) spokesman Bruno Shioso, however, downplayed the concerns of the affected officers, saying the delay was due to “technicalities and payroll cycle.”

“We are committed to implementing the court order. It is only because the court order and directive from NPSC came after the payroll had already been prepared,” Shioso told People Daily.

But documents from Jogoo House, the IG’s headquarters indicate that NPSC has written five letters to the police bosses since early this year, urging them to reinstate the payment.

The Commission wrote the first letter on February 14, 2022, directing IG to reinstate the payment in compliance with a court order of December 15, 2021 and followed it with another one on March 29, 2022 requesting to be furnished with data on all officers who had been earning salaries of the rank of inspector but had not yet attended the Senior Officers Inspectorate of Police (SOIP) course.

The letter also asked IG to fast track the training of the officers to enable reinstatement of the payment.

The other two letters were written to the police bosses on May 5, 2022 and October 3, 2022, warning them of being taken to court for contempt if they failed to reinstate the payment.

Court order

In his latest letter, dated October 3, 2022 seen by People Daily, NPSC chairman Eliud Kinuthia requests the police bosses to implement the court order and reinstate the withdrawn allowances.

This was after the commission revoked the 2021 circular  following a meeting on September 22.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the reinstatement of remuneration is in respect of Graduate Constables who were earning the enhanced salary of an Inspector of Police before the implementation of the Circular and should be backdated to the date of salary reduction without the loss of any benefit,” Kinuthia says in the letter.

The letter goes on to state: “The Commission will in due course be issuing a new and more comprehensive circular on the subject matter. Subsequently, Circular No. 1 of 2021 dated December 23, 2021 is hereby withdrawn.”

Kinuthia’s letter was addressed to acting IG Noor Gabow, Deputy Inspector General in charge of Kenya Police Service Edward Njoroge Mbugua and then acting DCI director Hamisi Massa and copied to the then Attorney General Kihara Kariuki.

The special salary allowance for graduate police Constables was cancelled in 2017.

A court had earlier ruled that there was no rank like Graduate Constable and the Circular that allowed the officers the salary equivalent to that of an Inspector was no longer valid thus the salaries paid were illegal.

Five officers –Ayub Gikonyo Mathenge, Mbusiro Christine Dorothy, Robinson Kipkorir Cheruiyot, John Kariuki and Meshack Mutukho – then moved to court in March 2018 to challenge the decision claiming there was no communication that the commission would reduce their salary.

Through lawyer Danstan Omari, they argued that at the time of recruitment, there was a circular that anybody joining the service with a degree automatically gets the salary of an Inspector of Police.

Officers rights

And in early September this year, Justice Mathew Nduma Nderi of the Employment and Labour Relations Court quashed the decision saying it was arbitrary, unreasonable, unlawful and a blatant violation of the accrued rights of the officers from the date of their recruitment to that when they were demoted for no good cause and their remuneration reduced to their great loss and detriment.

The affected officers had moved to court to oppose a move by the police authorities to reduce their salaries.

Justice Nderi directed the IG and the NPSC to continue paying graduate officers the consolidated salary equivalent to that of individuals in Job Group “J” that they were earning prior to the “unilateral, unreasonable, and unlawful” decision to reduce their pay.

Payroll

The pay cut affected officers who were being paid salaries equivalent to the rank of inspector but were downgraded to the rank of constable.

NPSC says the service currently has about 4,000 graduates who are yet to be promoted to the rank, and is awaiting for the report of a task force constituted to evaluate the policies over the issue before addressing it.

It has also emerged that the mismanagement of the National Police Service (NPS) Payroll where officers are entered into the system without the authority of the Commission, is one of the reasons the senior officers are reluctant to implement the order.

Sources also intimated to People Daily that NPS in liaison with the Ministry of Interior have usurped the control of the Integrated Personal Payroll Data (IPPD) and the general payroll for the officers despite it being a function of NPSC as stipulated under Articles 234 (3) (IV) and 246 (3) (a), (b) and (c) of the Constitution.