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"speaker_name": "Mr. Ojode",
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"legal_name": "Joshua Orwa Ojode",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the housing supplementation for a corporal is Kshs2,050, and he will also be sharing the same room with his colleagues. If the corporal dies on duty, he will get Kshs51,660. There is neither an extraneous allowance nor a risk allowance. There is also no life insurance. Let us now look at the senior sergeant. I am just giving you an example! We are sympathising with the way the Government is dealing with the policemen, from 1887 when the first recruitment was done in Mombasa. A senior sergeant gets a basic salary of Kshs27,435 and a medical allowance of Kshs990. His housing supplementation is Kshs3,050. There is no extraneous allowance, life insurance or risk allowance. That means that if he dies on duty, his dependants will get Kshs54,870. 2418 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 11, 2007 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let us go to a police constable. This is the last example which I want to give. A police constable gets a basic salary of Kshs13,800. He gets a medical allowance of Kshs495 and a housing supplementation of Kshs1,640. We have 40,000 policemen in the entire Police Force plus the 20,000 plus Administration Police officers. That figure is so small for the Government not to decide on certain allowances. Officers in the other forces, which I do not want to go into detail, for example, the Armed Forces, were given a pay rise in this year's Budget. They even have an entertainment allowance to the tune of Kshs50,000 up to Kshs100,000. I am not saying that the Minister in charge of security should also pay entertainment allowances to the policemen, but why not? If their counterparts are getting an entertainment allowance, why should they not get the same? Do you know that if a policeman today gets sick, he has to go home and sell whatever he has in order to pay for his medical bills? That is the type of police officer that you want to serve Kenyans. Who are handling the dirty jobs? Is it not the policemen? You want to call the same policemen when you are car-jacked. The same policemen guard the State House and this House and they are not getting any allowances. What is wrong in giving each police officer a minimum allowance of Kshs20,000? If you multiply this by 40,000 officers, it adds up to a very small figure, and yet we are talking of purchasing second-hand jet fighters. How? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, just in June, we lost quite a number of Kenyan citizens. About 112 people died in the month of June alone. Among the 112 people, 15 policemen lost their lives. They lost their lives because they were not properly equipped and they had not been given bullet-proof vests. Their morale is down completely. When the Minister was moving his Vote, he said that this time round, he has included some money to purchase bullet-proof vests. Bullet proof vests are so heavy that you cannot wear one when you do not have food in your stomach. It is not practical! The first thing the Minister should have done was to say that he is going to give risk, entertainment and extraneous allowances to these fellows and on top of that, he is going to set aside money to purchase life vests."
}