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The cash crunch in the police is so serious that junior officers will take over cleaning duties at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters in Mazingira House along Kiambu Road.
This follows the termination of services of a contractor hired to clean the offices due to accumulation of a huge bill that is yet to be settled, according to claims that we could not immediately verify.
The services of the groundsman who used to cut grass, trim the hedges and do landscaping have also been terminated because of financial constraints.
The move has attracted murmurs of discontent within the lowest rank of constable at Mazingira House, as more claims emerged that CID cadet officers who graduated in April have not been paid their salaries since, which is cumulatively estimated to be Sh19 million.
Constables will apparently now be required to wash the offices, cut grass, trim the hedges, pick litter and burn refuse among other duties. Usually, it is prisoners, contractors and groundsmen who perform these duties as they are not core to the services expected of the National Police Service (NPS).
An officer at DCI disclosed that even though prisoners still performed some of the duties, their number has been reduced. CID officers will now be responsible for cleaning the offices on Saturdays and Sundays, days when most of them are supposed to be taking their weekend break.
In a memo copied to all section heads comprising Administration, Investigation Bureau (IB), Criminal Records Office (CRO), Anti-Narcotics Unit (ANU), Ballistics, Bomb, Crime Scene Support Services (CSSS), Document, Photo, Transport and Operations, the bosses have been instructed to forward a specific number of officers who will become cleaners effective November 15.
A new office headed by Luke Migot has been established to coordinate the cleaning exercise, which will be achieved through an alternating weekly roster. Names of selected officers are expected to reach his office before Wednesday every week.
“You are therefore requested to give names of the officers to perform fatiques during this Saturday and Sunday from your command to help the Officer in Charge (OC) of Mazingira carry out this responsibility,” stated Migot in the memo dated November 10.
