Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 573321,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/573321/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 152,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Eric Keter",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1208,
        "legal_name": "Eric Arap Keter",
        "slug": "eric-arap-keter"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to air my views on police officers. At the outset, I want to say that I support this Motion. Why do I support it? This is an issue that touches sides as it touches the security of all of us in this country. So, we are dealing with a very sensitive issue. A police officer is an officer who has used a lot of money in terms of training and they may have been trained in Kenya or overseas. The issue is that most of them transfer to other firms and companies for better pay. The issue here is how are we going to retain them? I would like to thank the hon. member for coming up with this Motion - that we should have a way of bonding them to stay longer. I would like to urge that we should not look that the bonding aspect because what is important is the kind of service we expect from those individuals? Do we want them to protect us and our properties? How are we going to maintain them? Sometimes, when people blame police officers, I sympathize. That is because they look at the officers at the top. We are treating this issue on the top. What makes an officer receive a bribe? What makes an individual receive a bribe? We need to look at the resources they have. So, we should look at their welfare. The other day, I asked police officers in hardship areas like Kapedo how much allowance they were paid. They said they are given very little allowances. Imagine a married officer is given Kshs1,200 per month in a hardship area like Kapedo! It is really disturbing and we should look at this issue and be honest. The other issue I would like to talk about is the salary. The salary given to those police officers is very little. Most of them get between Kshs18,000 to Kshs20,000 and yet, they have very large families. They need to educate their children. They need to look into their own welfare at home. Some go for training for six and others for eight months and we demand services from those people. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I also find cases of officers injured or killed taking a lot time to be solved. It is like a punishment to them. There is an officer from Belgut Constituency who was killed in North Eastern in 2008 and up to now, the family has not been given anything. I feel hurt. We should look at the issues affecting our officers in a very good way. I think we are mistreating them. How can an officer stay in training for eight months? How can their families be looked into in terms of payment? We should view the issue of officers in a better way and not only bonding them. Bonding them is okay because we want to retain them to give us services. But the problem is what their welfare is. Look at the police officers, their homes and the type of houses they have. I can recall having visited one in Mombasa where a married couple shared a room by partitioning it with a curtain. We should be very realistic. I appeal to this House and the Government to look at the welfare of the officers in a better way. Those who are doing special services should be paid well and those going to risky areas should also be paid in time. All officers should be well remunerated. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, we should not only look at the police officers. Let us look at other Ministries. That is because in other sectors, we have officers who were trained using huge public money and in most cases, they render services for a very short time. I urge this House to look at this issue critically - particularly on the welfare. Through the welfare, I am sure we shall eradicate corruption which has become a talk. We talk about corruption but there is nothing substantial which is done. Yes, we should really eradicate corruption, but what are we going to do? You are giving an officer Kshs15,000 and subjecting him to very difficult conditions in life and you demand services. We should do more for those police officers so that The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}