The Maraga led TaskForce was to come up with various concrete commendations on reforms in NPS, KPS and NYS. This Taskforce presented its finding to the President in November last year. The report had 200 recommendations. The President directed that the following be implemented in the first phase as a
● Salary increase for Police, Prison and National Youth Service officers over the next three years
● Better working conditions that will include consolidated medical covers and house allowance
● Automated recruitment and promotion for officers
● No officer will serve in the same county for more than three years.
● Training for newly recruited officers to take 15 months
● NYS to recruit at least 100,000 annually
● Government to consider initiating a negotiated exit, or any other legal modality, for the current Commissioner of the NPSC
● Decongest prisons
● Restructuring of the Prisons Council by reviewing the qualifications of a chairperson in line with national ethos.
● Minimum qualifications for recruitment into the services be raised to grade C minus. However, for the marginalized areas, there s be retention of the D plus requirement.
The Strategic Framework that is meant to guide the implementation of these reforms in National Police Service (NPS), Kenya Prisons Service (KPS) and National Youth Service (NYS) has been finalized. This framework is the fruit of a Multi-Agency Steering Committee chaired by Dr. Omollo, the PS for the Ministry of Interior and National Administration and comprises of officials from his Ministry, Ministry of Public Service, the National Treasury, Salaries and Renumeration Commission (SRC) and National Police Service Commission (NPSC).
Included in the committee are officials from Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), Public Service Commission (PSC), National Youth Service (NYS) Council, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) among others. The committee finalized and presented this framework in March this year.
Dr. Ray Omollo has noted that the implementation of this phase of the reforms are at 65 per cent for NYS, 42 per cent for Kenya Prison Service and 37 percent at NPS adding that:
● The complaints handling processes for the three services have been reviewed in line with the recommendations of the taskforce.
● Consultations on the implementation of recommendations that require funding without policy or legislation are at an advanced stage. One such recommendation is on new basic salary scheme for the police, prisons and NYS officers.
Dr. Omollo adds that the Strategic Framework to be launched soon will guide the team in ensuring effective implementation and will cover areas that include leadership in the three services; oversight and accountability; institutional capacity development and human resource management and development, as well as operational preparedness and logistical capability. implementation
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