President William Ruto on Monday, June 24 announced that there will be new salary structures for police officers starting next month.
He announced the new changes as he flagged off the first group of 400 police officers to leave for the Haiti peacekeeping mission at the Administration Police Training Campus in Embakasi. READ FULL STORY
The new pay scale will take into account things like merit, length of employment, and pay compared to various positions. Sources have revealed that it will be made public at a later date.
It was an interactive session as the president opened the floor for questions from the Police. He then handed over the Kenyan Flag to the first cohort of officers headed to Haiti to lead a UN-backed mission to combat gang violence.
This comes a day before the Tuesday protests set to oppose the 2024 Finance Bill where Kenyans are calling out the government for misplaced priorities.
Many are against sending fellow countrymen to the violence-stricken country and deem the new pay scale as a bribe to bend to the government’s will.
Police officers in the missions are from the Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU), Anti Stock Theft Unit (ASTU), General Service Unit (GSU), and Border Patrol Unit (BPU), who according to officials are professionally trained to address the situation at the ground.
The 400 law enforcers will be part of the 2,500 police officers deployed to lead in fighting against well-armed Haitian gangs that have taken over the country’s capital and overwhelmed local police.
The Kenyan force will be under the command of the Head of Operations at the Administration Police Service (APS) Senior Assistant Inspector General of Police (SAIG) Godfrey Otunge appointed by Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome.
Other countries that have deployed their police forces are Chile, Jamaica, Grenada, Paraguay, Burundi, Chad, Nigeria and Mauritius.