It looks like President Uhuru Kenyatta has honored his pledge to police officers. It wasn’t just a change of wardrobe for police officers, they will now be able to move houses if they so wish.
Speaking when he met officers from the Critical Infrastructure Police Unit and Security of Government Buildings and the Rapid Deployment Unit at the National Police Service College in Embakasi, Inspector General of Police, Joseph Boinnet has promised police officers that they will start receiving their house allowances by the 1st of next month.
This follows a directive by President Uhuru Kenyatta in September that said that the free housing policy for junior police officers be abolished and the officers given a housing allowance instead. President Kenyatta had said that officers would receive house allowances based on the regions they are deployed to work.
The President introduced housing allowances for police in a move aimed at solving the perennial accommodation crisis. When he made the announcement today, Boinnet said that the government would still build houses for officers who would want to rent them.
The officers who reside in police line houses will be required to vacate their houses within three months of receiving their first payment.
The government clustered the regions into three different categories that will be used to determine the amount of money each officer shall receive as their house allowance every month. Police officers in Nairobi county will receive the highest allowance, a total of Ksh. 18,124 every month.
The second cluster has five counties including: Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Meru and Uasin Gishu. Officers in this cluster will receive a monthly allowance of Ksh. 13,124 while all other officers stationed in the other counties will receive Ksh. 8,124.
Inspector General of Police, Boinnet also urged Kenyans to embrace the new police uniforms for General Duty Police Officers even as the process of revamping the police service continues.
The directive to give officers housing allowance is meant to help integrate the Kenya Police with other Kenyans.
“Officers will be required to enter into private tenancies with private property owners where they can live with other members of the general society,” said President Kenyatta.
Would you feel safer knowing that your next door neighbor is a cop?