President William Ruto has reaffirmed the government’s commitment to fulfilling its promise of salary increase for prison officers and police personnel effective this month.
Speaking in State House during the swearing-in ceremony for the newly appointed Prisons Service Commissioner General, Ruto vowed that his government will implement its promise to said servicemen.
"In line with the commitment I made to our men in uniform, from this month we will be living up to our commitment to enhance the salaries of our policemen and prison officers," President Ruto said.
"Starting this month they will receive their first instalment of their increment in salaries."
At the beginning of the year, the government vowed that police officers and prison wardens would start receiving their 40 per cent salary increase from July.
The pay rise is in line with the recommendations made by the Taskforce chaired by former Chief Justice David Maraga last year.
When he received the final report last November, President William Ruto directed the Salaries Remuneration Commission to embark on measures to make the necessary adjustments for the same.
Prison officers alongside those in the National Youth Service (NYS) are also set to enjoy the benefit of what is seen as a move to improve service delivery in the security sector.
Ruto stated that the salary increase as well as other proposed reforms would deal with the problems identified by the task force - underfunding, deficient leadership, structural and organisational weakness and corruption.
The Taskforce which was established on December 21, 2022, through a Gazette notice, was mandated to assess and recommend improvement of working and living conditions of police officers and identify and recommend legal, policy, administrative, institutional, and operational reforms in the National Police Service (NPS) and Kenya Police Service and National Youth Service for effective service delivery.
The National Police Service Commission (NPSC) unveiled in August the third remuneration review cycle for the officers and civilians within the service for 2021-2025.
The review put the monthly salary of a newly recruited constable at Sh21,645.
The officers received an increase in salary of between Sh1,255 to Sh9,439.
Until then, police officers had not had a salary increase since 2020.
A long-serving constable who has been earning Sh38,975 per month currently receives at least Sh40,354 while a new corporal officer pockets Sh27,879.
A recently promoted sergeant officer takes home Sh38, 829 up from the current Sh36, 450 whereas a long-serving officer in the same rank gets Sh55,049 up from Sh53, 570.