President William Ruto has announced changes to the medical treatment schemes for police officers and Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) servicemen, aimed at improving their welfare.
Speaking at State House, Nairobi, during the presentation of the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) Exit Report, Ruto stated that officers seeking medical treatment will no longer be restricted to specific hospitals across the country.
As part of the new changes, officers will now be able to access treatment at facilities of their choice under the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) program.
"Under the expanded Universal Healthcare Coverage in the Taifa Care program, access to medical care will no longer be limited to certain identified hospitals," Ruto announced.
''Officers and servicemen and women will be able to access medical services and attention from all hospitals. We will improve access to different medical services,'' he added.
Further, Ruto announced the government will standardise the medical scheme of KDF and NPS officers to ensure that officers in the same job groups get services from the same medical facilities across the country.
"We are standardizing the entire medical scheme to ensure that all officers in equivalent job groups receive services from the same medical facilities," he added.
Meanwhile, Ruto announced that the government will allocate funds to support the rollout of the new police uniform, a pending issue since his administration took office.
The President also stated that the government will continue implementing measures to modernize police arsenal fully.
Additionally, he announced plans to enhance the transportation facilities used by National Police Service (NPS) officers. To achieve this, the government will focus on procuring more vehicles to improve emergency response times.
"We are also looking at police transport to ensure that we can accelerate response times for police actions across different parts of the country," he added.
The tenure of the current National Police Service Commission (NPSC) members will end once new commissioners assume office, a recruitment process that the Public Service Commission (PSC) has already begun.
