Babu: Ruto’s Sh2.5bn police uniform spend is misplaced priority

Jukwaa

📻 Breaking It Down

Speaking in Meru during the opposition’s Linda Mwananchi campaign, Owino claimed the government had allocated Sh2.5 billion to the new police uniforms, arguing that the money could have been channeled into job creation, factories and other programmes to benefit young people.

“Students have not entered university and colleges because their parents have no school fees. Then the government spends 2.5 billion to bring police uniforms. Is this foolishness or not?” the Nairobi Gubernatorial hopeful asked.

President William Ruto unveiled the new Kenya Police Service general-duty uniform at the Kenya Police Training College in Kiganjo on Friday, August 28, with more than 6,000 recruits becoming among the first officers to wear the new design.

📌 What You Need to Know

The National Police Service said the change followed recommendations from a 2023 public participation exercise in which officers expressed dissatisfaction with the previous outfit.

The new uniform replaces the Persian-blue outfit introduced in 2018 and consists of a light-blue shirt and deep-navy trousers. The rollout is expected to cover about 60,000 general-duty officers.

However, Babu questioned whether changing police attire should be a government priority, arguing that the same resources could have been used to address unemployment.

“Since 1963, in Kenya, we are still looking for police uniforms. What was wrong with the recent uniforms? What was wrong with the ones that were newly introduced?” he asked.

He also questioned why the government had not instead used the money to improve the welfare of police officers.

“Why didn’t they take that money and increase the police salaries?” he asked, claiming that a police officer’s salary increase of Sh1,000 would leave only about Sh800 after taxes.

📰 Source: Capital FM Kenya

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