Give us our Sh5.8m allowances, demand officers who were sent to Baringo

Kenya Red Cross volunteers and residents peep into a hut where a family was killed in Nadome in May 2015.

What you need to know:

  • The officers claim some of their colleagues were paid while others were left out in unclear circumstances.
  • The junior officers said the discrimination was affecting their morale.

Police officers who were who were early this year sent to restore order in Baringo are accusing their seniors of pocketing more than Sh5.8 million meant for their allowances.

The 145 police officers drawn from the General Service Unit, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, the Rapid Deployment Unit, the Rural Border Patrol Unit and the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit, said that each of them was entitled to Sh30,000 in allowances for the operation.

“We risked our lives by confronting armed bandits, at some point sustaining gunshot wounds only for our seniors to pocket our dues and abandon us in the camps,” said a disgruntled officer who requested not to be identified for fear of victimisation.

The officers who were deployed to Kasiela, Kapindasum, Arabal and Chepkalacha claimed that some of their colleagues were paid while others were left out in unclear circumstances.

“This is a big syndicate. People are enriching themselves as we languish in the bush,” said another officer.

The junior officers said the discrimination was affecting their morale and asked the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Joseph Boinnet, to intervene.

Besides what they said were poor working conditions and lack of cooperation from their superiors, the officers claimed that they were receiving meagre food rations, contaminated water and poor sanitation.

“Sometimes we run out of water and food supplies and we have to go without food yet we have no cash to purchase items at shopping centres,” said another officer.

According to them, no senior officer has ever visited them.

“Some of the officers were deployed here for the first time and are yet to visit their families since last year,” lamented another disgruntled officer.

'ARE AWARE'

Contacted for comment, the Rift Valley Regional Police Coordinator, Mr Gideon Amala, acknowledged that some officers were yet to be paid their allowances but added that the issue was being addressed.

“We are aware that some officers were not paid last time and we’ve already forwarded the list to police headquarters and they will be paid in due course. There are procedures for doing this and I urge the officers to be calm,” he said in a telephone interview. He dismissed claims that the money had been pocketed by senior officers.

“Why should they panic and they have not been sacked? Let’s not value money at the expense of service to our country,” he said.

Rift Valley Regional Coordinator Osman Warfa said that his office was yet to be notified about the officers’ complaints but also promised to follow up the matter.

“Just give me the areas where the officers are stationed without even mentioning the names of the officers and we will raise the issue on their behalf with Nairobi,” he said.

A spot check by the Nation in the area revealed that the officers were working under harsh conditions.

In Kapedo, Nadome and Suguta, the area has deep trenches occasioned by many years’ erosion making it very easy for security personnel to be ambushed by bandits.

Last year’s killing of 19 Administration Police (AP) officers in Kapedo and this year’s killing of at least 60 people at Nadome brought to more than 400, the number of people killed in the region in the past one year.

Senior officers have been criticised for deploying junior officers to the volatile region. Some of those sent to the area have served in the service for less than six months.

The slain officers who were killed in Kapedo are said to have made desperate calls for help from Nairobi for 30 hours but nobody assisted them.