The changes announced by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday in the police service as anticipated touched on housing and welfare concerns.
The president stated that the policy of mandatory and free housing for junior officers was abolished and instead, house allowances will be provided for the officers.
According to the policy framework launched on Thursday, officers will receive house allowances based on the regions they are deployed to work.
The government has clustered the regions into three different categories that will be used to determine the amount of money each officer shall receive as their house allowance every month.
Officers working in Nairobi will receive the highest amount which the state says shall be commensurate to market rates.
Police constables deployed in Nairobi County will, therefore, receive Kshs18,124.
The second cluster has five counties namely; Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Meru and Uasin Gishu.
Officers falling under this category shall receive Kshs13,124 as house allowances.
Constables stationed in all other counties will be paid Ksh8,124. These allowances, the framework documents states, are higher than those allocated to other public servants.
The officers who reside in police line houses will be required to vacate their houses within three months of receiving their first payment.
In the amendments announced at Kenya School of Government, the President directed the National Treasury to initiate termination of leases of private property that house police officers across the country live.
"House allowances for all ranks will be provided and I direct the National Treasury to initiate the termination of all leases of police estates within 90 days after the effective date of the new allowances.
"Officers will be required to enter into private tenancies with private property owners where they can live with other members of the general society," stated President Kenyatta.
