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The government’s promise to increase salaries of police and prisons officers’s salaries by at least 40 percent this financial year may come a cropper after the National Treasury failed to include the Sh15 billion  required to implement the Justice (Rtd) David Maraga Task Force report.

President William Ruto while officially receiving the report last year, had promised that officers in the  National Police Service (NPS), Kenya Prisons Service and the National Youth Service (NYS) would get a 40 percent salary hike as recommended by the Justice Maraga report.

But yesterday, documents tabled before the National Assembly’s Committee on Administration and Internal Security by the Inspector General of Police Japheth Koome indicated  that the Sh15 billion that had been budgeted for had been removed from the National Police Service (NPS) budget.

Koome appearing before the MPs  called for the reinstatement of the  amount  of money which is part of the Sh60.61 billion shortfall  for NPS  optimally.

Koome said  the task force had recommended that the implementation of the remunerations of the officers be done in three financial cycles including 2024/2025 and 2026/2027 financial years.

Myriad challenges

And in her submission before the committee, Secretary for  Administration and the NPS accounting officer Bernice Lemedeket told the committee to push for more funds as the NPS had posted an above average performance in all programmes amidst a myriad of challenges.

 “ We request for a kind consideration of the underfunded areas highlighted in the report and  commit that the funds would  be utilized prudently in an efficient, economical and effective manner to enhance service delivery by NPS,” she said.

In the report presented to President Ruto at State House, Nairobi, the 20-member  team chaired by Maraga, proposed that the salary increment be effected in phases over a period of three years.

In his address, the Head of State lauded the recommendation, saying the move would help restore integrity, efficiency and accountability in the security forces.

“Our primary objective is to secure the transformation of this nation by instituting a professional, efficient, effective security sector which is defined by integrity and accountability,” Ruto said during the event.

Security docket

Ruto agreed with Maraga team’s recommendation that the Police Service, the Prisons Service and the National Youth Service be moved to the security sector in regard to remuneration and terms of service.

And apart from the Maraga report, Koome said that NPS requires Sh48 million to facilitate investigations into the Shakahola massacre. The said monies, he regretted, was not factored in the 2023/2024 budget and thus ought to be factored in the supplementary estimates.

He disclosed that dealing with the Shakahola massacre was a very expensive affair for the police and thus needed more funding. He explained that NPS was forced to send a huge team to Malindi to carry out the operation that drained their finances.

He said: “The investigations have been ongoing for the last one year since March 2023 and expected to go on till the end of year 2024.  This exercise had not been budgeted for in the current financial year and has drained security operations funds meant for other operations.

“He added: “This was very expensive to NPS. We had to dispatch a huge team from Headquarters to Malindi and to sustain them it was not easy. We also need the money because there are other areas of Shakahola that need to be opened.

Understatement

In his submissions, Koome regretted that the Sh48 million is actually an understatement as they require more money to sustain and maintain officers. 

He gave examples that to sustain 50 officers undertaking such a task taking into consideration that their per diem amounts to Sh10,000,  translates to Sh 15 million per month and Sh180 million per year. 

He said:” These resources were provided by the IG and the DCI and were sourced from normal operations and this ate  into our funding. “

Koome also said that they require an additional Sh1.88 billion for police recruitment as they were only allocated Sh3.15 billion against a requirement of Sh5.03 billion. He disputed the figure submitted by the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) that they require an additional 10,000 saying this was only agreed by commissioners who are non uniforms.

He explained that recruiting 10000 officers is a huge task and could be challenging due to the training done on them.

For this exercise he said they require paying the officers a stipend of Sh 10 000 monthly, need new ammunition and cleaning materials, need food rations at a cost of Sh 1 billion and uniforms for the recruits at Sh 2 billion.