A pass out ceremony at the Kenya Police College in Kiganjo on August 24, 2013. PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI | FILE
NATION MEDIA GROUP
More than 600 police officers are paid through vouchers because their names are missing from the payroll, Nation has learnt.
A number of officers who spoke to Nation
on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to
the media said they are often forced to survive on borrowed money as
they wait for the claims to mature.
The anomaly could
be derailing service delivery because among the affected officers are
those serving in far-flung areas of the country and they must travel to
Nairobi regularly to claim their dues.
NAMES OMITTED
Those
affected are among 7,000 constables who graduated from police training
colleges in April and were posted to stations across the country, but
their names were omitted from the payroll.
Deputy
Inspector-General in charge of police service Grace Kaindi confirmed the
anomaly and said the problem would be sorted out soon.
“All
officers are being paid their salaries (normally) although the number
(more than 600) had issues since they have no PIN (Personal
Identification Number). The officers are paid their salaries by
vouchers,” she said.
The officers said that while their
colleagues were given payroll numbers upon leaving college, they were
left out with the promise that the anomaly would be corrected soon.
More than 7,000 fresh officers were absorbed into the service in April, increasing the police numbers by 10 per cent.
Besides
the remuneration problem, the National Police Service is grappling with
an accommodation crisis and many police officers are forced to share
houses with colleagues.
In some cases, officers of the opposite sex share houses
while other fresh graduates sleep in canteens at police stations. The
situation is set to get worse next year if new houses are not quickly
acquired, because an additional 10,000 officers are to be enlisted.
National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich revealed the plan in this year’s Budget statement.
Details of the housing crisis surfaced barely a month after the Nation revealed how senior officers have been renting out police houses.
Junior
officers in the ranks of constable to sergeant are housed by the
government while those in higher cadres are given a house allowance.
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