The National Police Service Commission (NPSC) has blamed the recent budget cuts for hampering their efforts of recruiting 10,000 more police officers.
Appearing before the National Assembly Committee on Administration and Internal Security at the County Hall, the commission requested additional money to enhance its capacity to recruit more officers.
Commissioners from NPSC made the remarks while appearing before the Committee on Tuesday, February 25, to present its 2025 Budget Policy Statement (BPS).
"The Committee to make budget considerations for the recruitment of 10,000 police officers to enhance the capacity of the National Police Service," NPSC Commissioner John Ole Moyaki told the committee.
According to Moyaki, the recent budget cuts critically affected efforts to improve the police-to-population ratio, which currently stands at 1:688.
In the Supplementary Budget for the financial year 2024/25, MPs okayed cuts of Ksh3.2 billion, which the NPS was to use to list 2,862 new officers, who were among the 10,000 officers.
Also present in the committee was NPSC CEO Peter Leley who called for the committee to support the commission in the implementation of the Maraga Police Reforms’ recommendations to strengthen the Commission's capacity to execute its mandate.
The commission also called for budget considerations in the automation of Human Resource Management processes, decentralisation of Commission Human Resource and Counselling Services, enhancing the Staff House Mortgage Scheme, and acquisition of Vehicles for operational effectiveness.
In January, the Interior Principal Secretary PS Raymond Omollo revealed that the government would recruit at least 10,000 police officers by the end of the year.
Amollo had said that the National Assembly had allocated a budget for 5,000 police recruits, but the ministry would engage MPs to increase it to enable the government to double the number of recruits.
Meanwhile, ICT and Digital Economy CS William Kabogo has been dealt a blow after the Committee on Communication, Information, and Innovation (CII) rejected his budget.
The Committee instructed the Ministry to revise its figures and deliver measurable results after it found fault in its allocations and lack of clear breakdowns.
The MPs pointed out the inconsistency of allocating Ksh350 million for refurbishing the Directorate of Information HQ while the KIMC Eldoret branch received no funding, the Kenya Yearbook Editorial Board allocated a budget, yet it would be scrapped.
