A General Service Unit (GSU) officer who was fired in 2016 has officially been reinstated.
The officer known as Newton Chebii was discharged for attending Law Degree classes at Strathmore University without informing his superiors at the police headquarters.
The reports from the office of Ombudsman said that Chebii and one of his colleagues had been awarded a scholarship.
The two were then deployed to Kibera Welfare Canteen and were to be reporting to the Officer in Charge.
“In 2016, the GSU Commanding Officer declared them deserters as they failed to appear when deployed back to the GSU Headquarters. This was due to the fact that they were attending classes and the officers at the headquarters were unaware of the same,” the Ombudsman said.
As a result of that, they did not receive their salaries, which is why they were prompted to seek help from the Inspector General and his Deputy.
On August 15, 2016, the commandant said that there had been communication breakdown and hence they will receive their salaries.
But only his colleague got his pay.
Two months later, Chebii was suspended with his seniors quoting Section 88 (2) and Sub-Section (1) (c) of the Eighth Schedule of the National Police Service Act, 2011.
Section 88 (2) states: ” The offences against discipline include the offences prescribed under the Eighth Schedule.”
Sub-Section (1) (c) says: “It shall be an offence against discipline for any police officer to—use threatening or insubordinate or disrespectful language, word, act or demeanour to a police officer senior to him in rank.”
“Interestingly, by the time he lodged the matter with Commission in August 2017, he had not received an outcome of the disciplinary matter,” the Ombudsman said on Monday.
It is then that he decided to forward the matter to the National Police Service Commission.
Chebii was reinstated in November 2017 with full salary and arrears but over a year later, he had not received a letter stating the same.
Due to this delay and lack of understanding, he forwarded his request to the office of the Ombudsman, where he finally got help in January 2019.