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{
    "id": 573271,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/573271/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 102,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 24,
        "legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
        "slug": "nicholas-gumbo"
    },
    "content": "when you read that some of these officers were bundled into lorries like sardines from their stations upcountry, brought to the city, taken to some godforsaken hostels in the eastern side of town and nobody cared how they ate or went back. Is this how you treat responsible people? Are we now waiting for another scandal to come up? Can we be told why nobody provided for the upkeep of the thousands of police officers who were brought to enhance security in the City? When you hear things like this, you become very sad. As representatives of the people, we must pronounce ourselves on this. Some of these police officers say they were to be given allowances. Obviously, when they come to work here they have to eat and sleep in decent places. Are we now waiting for another inquiry to be started by this House on who took the allowances which were meant for the police officers who came to provide security and control traffic during President Obama’s visit? This Motion is good, but it cannot sort out this problem. Yes, it is true that a lot of resources go into training police officers and security forces, but we will remain nothing but a talking shop if, as a House, we cannot take measures to ensure that police officers are paid well, provided with comprehensive insurance and we improve the deplorable state of police housing. I have had relatives who have worked in the police service. There is a time I visited one of them when I was just leaving university. I asked him: “Why are all these curtains in the sitting room?” I further questioned him: “How come you are sleeping here and somebody else is sleeping next door? How come some of you are married while others are not and yet the only thing dividing you is a curtain?” We are even encouraging immorality in the NPS through these deplorable conditions that we allow them to work in. Most importantly, let us streamline promotions. This idea that you can only be promoted if somebody is able to hold your hand is bringing the morale of the police down. Let us also equip the police properly. If we do all these things and make the work of the police attractive, that in itself will have guaranteed retention in the force. However, it is not going to be possible even if we were to make laws because always there is the letter and spirit of the law. If I am living in a deplorable house, I do not have insurance, you are paying me badly, when you ask me to go and work outside my station you pack me in a lorry like a bag of sardines and you do not even care how I live, eat or sleep, how do you expect me to stay in service? Even if we enacted punitive laws, what would stop me from moving if I get a better employer? Everybody wants to improve his or her lot. What would stop me from jumping ship and joining somebody who is offering me better terms? It is unacceptable that today a lot of private security firms give better terms than the NPS to which we appropriate billions of resources in this House every year. In the Budget that we passed this year, a huge amount of money has gone towards what ought to be the welfare of police officers. I am not one person who buys into the idea that the problem we have with our security is consistent underfunding over the years. If you look at the trends over the last five years, for example, if you take the NPS and compare it with the police in Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda or Burundi, you will realise that the allocations that we make to our police service every year is more than what the Tanzanians, Ugandans and Rwandans put together make to their police services. Let us improve the welfare of police officers and we will be able to train a disciplined service. When loss of job means nothing to you, even with punitive laws you will still jump ship. With those remarks, Hon. Deputy Speaker, I beg to support."
}