This archive report was first published on 5 September 2019.
Published on September 5, 2019, a group of graduate police constables have petitioned the court to have Inspector General of Police Hilary Mutyambai and National Police Service Commission chairperson Eliud Kinuthia jailed for contempt of court.
The officers are seeking the jailing of the two over their refusal to comply with a court order awarding them salaries equivalent to those of inspectors of police.
According to the officers, the pay hike was to have been implemented in August this year, but IG Mutyambai cited financial implications as the reason for the delay.
IG Mutyambai stated that effecting the pay hike would require the government to allocate an additional Ksh.928 million annually, which would have serious financial implications on the budget.
The career progression guidelines for the National Police Service Uniformed Personnel, 2016, do not provide a rank of a graduate constable in the service, which the commission argues would create disparity within the force.
Currently, an ordinary police constable serves under job group F and earns a basic salary of Ksh.19,290, while a graduate police constable serves under job group J earning a basic salary of Ksh. 42,600.
