10,000 officers to be recruited
Administration Police graduates during their passing out parade in Nairobi on April 17, 2014. President Kenyatta said 10,000 more officers would be recruited in the next one year to boost the war against crime. PHOTO | BILLY MUTAI
What you need to know:
- Additional personnel will be hired in the next one year, says President as 3,221 APs graduate
At least 10,000 police officers will be recruited in the next one year, President Kenyatta said on Thursday.
The Cabinet, he said, had also approved more funding for the security sector, which would be better equipped and provided with more vehicles, to better tackle rising insecurity.
Chiefs and their assistants will also be given motorcycles to ease their movement while carrying out their duties, the President said as he presided over the graduation of 3,221 Administration Police officers in Nairobi.
FEARFUL AND GREEDY
The Head of State further announced that from July 1, all police officers will be provided with medical insurance, and urged them not to disappoint Kenyans.
“Your country asks much of you. Law enforcement is not a career for the fearful and greedy. We trust you to protect our lives and property with lethal force, if necessary,” he told the fresh graduates at the Administration Police Training College.
“If you do your work without fear, we will take care of you properly,” the President, who was with his deputy, Mr William Ruto, said.
He reminded criminals that the two-week amnesty he had given them to surrender their weapons was about to expire. He warned that those who will not have heeded the call will “face the full force of the law.”
“There are those who have heeded our call in Nairobi. If you do not return them, you will be classified as the enemy of the nation and we shall take action against you according to the law,” the President said.
Kenyans, he said, should not view the war on terrorism as religious or ethnic. “We should not be divided by the atrocities of fools and murderers,” he said, and urged politicians not politicise the crackdown, describing it as “good of the country”.
Mr Ruto warned that terrorists and cattle rustlers would be subdued.
“This will be done when we boost the numbers of police officers in order to ensure that there is law and order in this country,” he said.
Internal Security Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku and Inspector-General David Kimaiyo said the government would not negotiate with criminals.
Mr Lenku denied reports that the operation against illegal immigrants was being done unlawfully.
