Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja wants the housing of police officers across the country improved.
Speaking in Mombasa on Wednesday, Kanja said officers are living in dilapidated houses, which demotivates them.
“Officers need to live and work in a decent place so as to deliver better services,” Kanja said.
He spoke during the official opening of Mbaraki police station in Mvita subcounty built through the NG-CDF. The welfare of officers is a key factor in the delivery of services to Kenyans.
“We want our police officers to live well because they are also our brothers, sisters, mothers, uncles and generally our people,” Kanja said.
The Mbaraki police line, which houses more than 50 families, had been marked for renovation in 2020, when the National Assembly Committee on Administration and National Security conducted an inspection.
The MPs expressed concern over the poor conditions to which police officers are subjected.
“Like here in Mbaraki, we find that the status is very bad and it looks like there has been no maintenance,” then committee chair Paul Koinange (Kiambaa) said.
The committee found dilapidated houses, unkempt compounds, blocked sewers and cracked walls. On Wednesday, Kanja reiterated that the houses at the Mbaraki police line are run down.
“It is true we see that these houses and others in other places are not good. But I assure residents here and my officers that we have taken the responsibility to ensure that the welfare of our police officers is addressed,” he noted.
“We have started with housing. (New) Houses have started being constructed. If you go to Kilimani in Nairobi, we are almost completing the new houses there,” he said.
“In Mathare depot, more houses are being constructed. In the GSU headquarters, the houses are coming up.” Kanja said he was to meet with Housing PS Charles Hinga on Wednesday to discuss the issue.
“This evening before I sleep when I go back to Nairobi, I must look for the Housing PS so I can tell him there is a big space here at Mbaraki where new police houses can be built through the Affordable Housing program,” the IG said.
“We have to have institution houses built so that our officers are well accommodated so that they can give you better services.”
He added, “After two or three days, he will have to come here to see for himself the state of the houses here so he can act.”
Mvita MP Mohamed Machele said police officers are frustrated, which sometimes causes them to go rogue. Machele noted that embittered officers vent their anger on residents, arbitrarily arresting them, making them suffer.
“Some of their frustrations could be coming from home, when they think of their living conditions and they meet you on the streets looking like you are happily living in better-off houses,” Machele said.
The MP pledged to push the national government to have the police houses constructed in Mbaraki and other places where police lines exist.
