Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i has directed members the National Police Service against marrying among themselves.
Mataing’i who was speaking during the official opening ceremony of direct entry cadet inspectors course at the National Police College Kiganjo Campus in Nyeri said the directive will be effected beginning July 2021.
The July 2021 directive by the CS comes at a time when the police service has been rocked by instances of murder emanating from sexual harassment and domestic squabbles.
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In April 7, the nation was shocked after Mataing’i's bodyguard, General Service Officer Hudson Wakise shot and killed his wife, Pauline Wasike before turning the gun on himself.
"We are scaling up management of the police service, we have to adopt a new way, we will create a new office of gender relations that will be under the IG, some of the female members have complained of sexual harassment,
"It will not happen again in future, we will adopt the system that has been adopted by KDF, you cannot leave this training and go start having affair with your officers one will have to go, if we have such cases of harassment we will strip off ranks and dismiss you, it’s not going to be easy," Matiang'i stated
The new directive also comes after the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) revealed that it had been looking into claims of sexual harassment of female police officers by their seniors.
IPOA also revealed that the female officers faced intimidation and threats of disciplinary action including transfer to remote areas even sacking.
"It takes all of us to enhance security, many people don’t know what police officer go through somewhere in Mandera making sure Alshaab do not attack, we ask our colleagues especially the media to adopt a respectable approach to our service, because one person makes mistake we don’t condemn the entire fraternity," Matiangi revealed.
He further asked members of the public to be considerate when associating the tainted image of a few errand officers to the general service.
"Those of us who make mistake and go beyond the line that’s why we have the system and standing orders, we don’t stand and condemn, we unlike the media don’t have a platform, as far as security is concern we are in the same boat, media has the task, I urge we respect the security sector and it pain me when I see some things that media do to humiliate the forces," the interior CS stated.
