Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has announced a new promotion plan targeting long-serving police officers, as part of efforts to improve morale within the service.
In a statement on Thursday, August 7, Murkomen said the government would now prioritize promotions for veteran officers who meet certain service thresholds.
"As part of our ongoing reforms to boost the morale of our officers and improve the quality of our policing, over 50-year-old constables, sergeants who have served for more than 15 years, and inspectors who have served for more than 10 years will be promoted on merit," he said.
In addition to the promotion change, Murkomen also noted that the ministry is working on a career progression scheme for administrators.
"Other morale-boosting measures we are undertaking include a career progression scheme for our administrators," he added.
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This comes over a month after Murkomen announced sweeping reforms within the National Police Service (NPS) aimed at addressing concerns over police misconduct and improving transparency.
Speaking in a presser on Monday, June 16, he said the reforms were borne out of consultation and introspection of past and current incidents of police excesses.
Murkomen said all 1,209 police stations in the country will be required to install CCTV surveillance systems within the next two years.
He added that the Office Commanding Station (OCSs) will be in charge of the systems' functionality, and it will have an external back-up.
"It shall be mandatory to equip police stations with CCTV surveillance to enhance transparency and accountability. All the police stations, currently standing at 1,209, shall have CCTV surveillance within the next two years.
"We shall be making proposals to Parliament to enact laws that criminalize tampering with CCTV cameras. The surveillance system shall be in the custody of the Officer Commanding Station (OCS), and the said officer shall be required to ensure that the system is always functioning, and in instances of fault, it shall be reported within one hour through the established chain of command. The CCTV shall have an external back-up system," he said.
Murkomen further said the ministry will roll out a new digital reporting system to modernize the current Occurrence Books (OBs) in a move to reduce opportunities for manipulation.
"Over the next one year, and in line with the BETA program of digitization, we shall roll out a digital reporting system. This is a reform that had been initiated, and we are now committed to the digitization of occurrence books to ensure all reported incidents can be tracked and be tamper-proof," he added.
