Government should address police needs.

In the year 2006, I reunited with a bosom friend in Nairobi.Naturally; he recounted to me his whereabouts for the last nine years. He informed me that since we sat for our KCSE exams in 1997, he stayed at home for two years after which he was enrolled at Kiganjo Police Training College in 2000.
That time we met, he had just been posted at Wilson Airport police station. He was optimistic that his new station would give him a new lease of life having spent about five years in Meru.
I took the opportunity to ask him about his working conditions in the police service now that was an “afande”.I knew for sure that he was the best suited person to disclose to me the nitty gritty of the career I had given a thought in 1998.
He candidly told me, “Kanyi, I am frank with you; I have been in the police service for close to six years and I can tell you that I’m truly disappointed about the working conditions. We work long hours at night and in the process we get exposed to dangerous criminals with sophisticated weapons.
“We are not provided with bulletproof jackets and you can be sure that death is imminent should there be a shotout.What irk us is that there is no insurance policy to cover us for any eventuality. If one of us dies in the line of duty, he is on his own.
“Another thing that troubles us is that it takes so long for one to be promoted. You can’t imagine I am still a constable and I have no idea when I will be promoted to a corporal. By and large, promotion in the police is on a who-do-you-know basis.
“I don’t want to talk about the salary issue because it simply sucks! We just hope the Government will review our package so that we can lead a decent life to avoid temptations of engaging in crime to make ends meet.”
I spent the whole day with him and I learned how frustrated the police officers are with their work. I urged him to soldier on and maybe one day he will smile all the way to the bank.
Fast forward this month, a police officer at Parklands police station shot dead his boss and fatally injured his colleague before he turned the gun on himself. Such an incident happened in Naromoru police station on March this year. It is a worrying trend that police officers—administration and regular—have in the recent years taken the law into their hands and killed their colleagues and civilians over unexplained reasons.
Evidently so, there are a lot of challenges facing police officers and it is the high time that the Government takes a bold step in reforming the police service. Police plays a very important role in the society and it’s important to motivate the officers by addressing their numerous needs amicably. Most of the extra-judicial deaths caused by police stem from issues that can be addressed before getting out of hand.

James Mwangi Kanyi

Nairobi