Match better pay for police with reforms

Kenya: Reports that some members of the police force have gone on a go-slow to press for higher wages can only be termed as unfortunate because crime seems to be spiraling out of control across the country, leading to loss of innocent lives.

To learn that police, who seem to have abdicated their responsibilities and turned the country over to criminals, are going on strike is most galling indeed.

True, their salaries at Sh18,155, for the lowest paid, is not enough. But have these policemen taken into account what an unemployed or underemployed Kenyan — and they are the majority — who pays that salary lives on?

Time has come for this country to inject some sobriety into its national discourse. Before any section of the public sector goes on strike for higher salaries and wages, it would be useful for it to consider whether it is delivering value for money for the income it is currently enjoying.

Efficient service

Once it is satisfied that this is the case, the next level of enquiry would be to find out what that higher salary it is demanding would mean to the rest of the economy. Otherwise, the Government might end up collecting taxes simply to pay salaries and wages.

Let it be hoped that the current row between the office of the Inspector-General of Police and the office of the National Police Service Commission will be ended soon and the long-awaited police reforms will take place.

If these reforms are carried out professionally, using expertise from outside the country preferably, this would give Kenya a lean, but efficient, police service.

As the national gatekeeper in the various battles the country is fighting against crime, the police service should be as pure as Caesar’s wife.

Not even a whiff of suspicion should be tolerated among its ranks. Then, and only then, should the Government be obligated to facilitate the service to do its work as necessary, including the payment of higher salaries.