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National Police Service is staring at a crisis over staff housing, which must be resolved quickly. Following a decision by the service to stop staff housing, police officers have been directed to seek own rentals. This is part of the wide-ranging reforms to revamp and strengthen the service. But the housing plan was not properly thought through, hence needs to be revised.
It can cause a backlash and undermine the noble goal of revitalising the service and improving its image.
At the heart of the matter is contestation over housing allowance. The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has proposed miserable figures, which simply condemn police officers to live in slums. Lack of proper of housing is a major disincentive and amounts to unfair human resource practice.
Employers no longer provide housing for employees — it is not their business anyway. Instead, however, they provide housing allowance if not decent gross salaries to enable employees secure reasonable and safe accommodation. Staff welfare is germane to productivity.
The case of the police officers is fairly vexed. First, they are poorly paid. They get peanuts for basic salaries but are cushioned by government housing complete with utilities like water and electricity, especially for those in urban areas. Not that those houses are worth writing home about.
But what SRC has proposed as housing allowance is miserable. For example, a police sergeant in Nairobi is supposed to get a monthly housing allowance of Sh9,800 while those in other big towns, Sh7,300. It is even lower for those in smaller towns. For Nairobi, it is not possible to find a decent house with that kind of money.
Effectively, therefore, those officers are fated to live in dingy shelters that not only expose them to criminals but are also demeaning.
Moreover, the way the directive is being executed is quite inhuman.
The officers were given hardly two months to vacate the government houses, yet getting any decent shelter and relocating families take longer. Clearly, that is not the way to handle employees.
Equally, there are fundamental and logistical issues to deal with here. There is wisdom in housing police officers, especially those in the lower rungs, within the stations.
It is easy to mobilise them for security operations on short notice. The converse is true. When police officers live outside the camps, marshalling for an urgent assignment is extremely difficult. In other words, the plan has serious security and operational challenges.
Police officers work under difficult conditions and it is not fair to add to their distresses. The housing plan should be reviewed and handled with sensitivity it deserves. Employee well-being is key in any reform process.
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