Police officers living in classrooms as housing shortage bites

Police officers in Nairobi have devised new survival tactics in response to the shortage of housing affecting the region.

Some new recruits are now being accommodated in canteens and classrooms.

At the Lang'ata Police Station, 15 police officers are now living in a kindergarten classroom because of the acute shortage of housing.

The station’s kindergarten, which has three classrooms, is the new home for officers who have been unable to secure housing.

In an interview in his office in Lang'ata, the police division commander, Elijah Mwangi, told Nation.co.ke that he was unaware of the officers’ housing problems and agreed to take us on a tour of the premises.

“To the best of my knowledge, the new recruits who had no houses were housed in the canteen for a few days then redeployed to other stations in Lang'ata Division where they were accommodated,” he said.

A tour of the kindergarten led by a deputy divisional commanding officer revealed that there were 15 recently deployed officers living in one of the classrooms.

The room had 12 beds and mattresses, with suitcases placed beside them. Three other mattresses were placed on the floor.

NO BATHROOMS

There were no bathrooms in sight, with only nursery school toilets in sight a few metres away.

Three off-duty officers in the classroom told the deputy divisional commander, who appeared shocked at the discovery, that they had been living there for months.

Some of the recently deployed officers had, however, been moved to available houses within the station or in their duty stations.

Still, officers living in Lang'ata are pointing an accusing finger at the sergeant in charge of housing for his perceived failure to reassign the houses that belonged to officers who had been redeployed to other stations.

The officers, who talked to Nation.co.ke who did not want to be named for fear of losing their jobs complained about what they saw as unfair allocation of houses, a move they said resulted in the acute housing shortage.

One officer said colleagues who had been transferred to stations outside Nairobi have been allowed to retain their houses.

“Some officers who were transferred to Mombasa early this year still have the keys to their houses in Lang'ata. They come here once a month and stay for a few days then go back to their new station, yet there are recruits without houses,” said the source.

NOT RECEIVED INFORMATION

Mr Mwangi, the divisional commanding officer, said his office had not received information about officers working outside Nairobi but still occupying houses in the station.

“I am aware of housing challenges in our station, but no officer has informed me about officers deployed outside Nairobi and still retaining houses here. I have an open-door policy that allows officers to come to me directly on any issues,” said Mr Mwangi.

He added that investigations on the matter would commence to establish which houses need to be vacated and allocated to the new recruits.

“We will conduct a housing audit through our recently formed housing committee and if we find an officer working within Nairobi and has a house in another station we will immediately order him to vacate the Lang'ata one so that we can give (it) to another officer,” said Mr Mwangi.

He added that he champions a transparent system of administration that allows officers to raise any complaints through the available channels.