Kenya police housing project audit long overdue

Better housing for junior police officers remains one of the greatest challenges of the National Police Service. Police reforms initiated in 2011 have had little impact in that regard.

Granted, part of the achievement has been the setting up of institutions like the Independent Police Oversight Authority and the National Police Service Commission with specific mandate to improve the overall image of the police.

Last year, President Uhuru Kenyatta commissioned 30 Armoured Personnel Vehicles that were expected to go a long way in improving security. This was in addition to the setting up of a forensic lab and the partnership with Safaricom to provide closed circuit surveillance cameras that would help the police see happenings around major cities in real time. But while these can be seen as positive steps towards setting up a professional police service, there is much more to policing than just having the right gear to work with.

Morale plays a big role in how the police execute their duties. Men and women forced to live in deplorable conditions, often sharing tents, mud and tin shacks that pass for houses have little self-esteem.

There is no reason why police officers should live in such conditions yet, in 2015, the then Lands and Housing Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu requested a Sh1.3 billion budget for the construction of modern housing units for the police.

There was assurance 80,000 units would be built by the end of 2015 and a total of 300,000 units by 2017. After sinking in so much money into the housing project, where are the results apart from the few units around Nairobi? Police officers in outposts live in shame, some even sleeping in converted cells.