Rescind move to cut salaries for police officers

National Police Service Commission Chairman Johnston Kavuludi. [KIPSANG JOSEPH, STANDARD]

The implementation of a controversial salary adjustments in the National Police Service has been effected.

And as expected, the National Police Service Commission has come under sharp criticism.

What the NPSC sought to do could end up being a case of two wrongs never making a right. Big mistake.

Hard pressed to inculcate professionalism and thereby spruce up the image of the police force in the 1990s, the government set up a scheme where university graduates (who would naturally opt for white collar jobs) were lured with salaries and allowances higher than those of their non-graduate colleagues.

A graduate joining at the rank of Constable at Job Group J earned a basic salary and Sh36,000 and a Sh11,000 allowance. Following instructions from the NPSC, this has been halved and reduced by Sh2,000 respectively.

Though it is understandable that the government could be trimming the ballooning wage bill, starting with the security sector is foolhardy. There are numerous other public servants, like politicians, undeserving of their fat pay and generous allowances.

In fact, the pay cut undermines efforts by the Jubilee administration to address age-old concerns of the police service. Besides equipping them with vehicles and gifting them with a medical and life insurance scheme and improving their housing, the officers should be paid better.

The pay cut risks reversing all that good work. We might end up with a demoralised force, unwilling to protect the citizenry and maintain law and order and hence a compromise on national security. Worse still, the taxpayer will be saddled with a litany of legal suits because the move contravenes basic labour laws. It’s a bad idea, revoke it before it’s late.