Low pay no excuse for bribery- Murkomen tells corrupt police officers
Reacting to the report released earlier this week, the CS warned that it would not be “business as usual” and that those implicated would be dealt with according to the law.
Those who applied to join the police force understood the hardships and accepted the terms of service that come with the job, including deployment to operational areas; therefore, they have no excuse to engage in corruption, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has said.
The CS on Friday put corrupt officers on notice, following the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission’s (EACC) 2024 National Ethics and Corruption Survey, which ranked police officers as the professional group most reported to be involved in unethical practices and corruption.
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Reacting to the report released earlier this week, the CS warned that it would not be “business as usual” and that those implicated would be dealt with according to the law. He added that officers, particularly those in the traffic department and other units engaging in graft, were tarnishing the image of the National Police Service (NPS), and he vowed to pursue them.
“Low pay is not a licence to engage in corrupt activities such as taking bribes. It is simply the character of the specific officer, and I will not allow a few individuals to damage the image of the service,” he said.
The survey, which assessed the involvement of different professionals in unethical practices and corruption as well as the level of satisfaction with public services in Kenya, ranked police officers (27.6 per cent), Kenya Revenue Authority officials (17.3 per cent), chiefs (16.2 per cent), county inspectorate officers (14.6 per cent) and lawyers (14.1 per cent) as the top five groups most reported to be involved in corruption.
They were closely followed by county revenue officers (13.4 per cent) and land surveyors (13.3 per cent).
Murkomen was speaking in Bomet during his ongoing Jukwaa la Usalama series, where he also praised officers who are representing the country in the ongoing TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (CHAN), noting that the Harambee Stars line-up includes several police officers.
“I am very proud that the NPS has two teams in the Kenya Premier League and that they have contributed players to the national team (Harambee Stars) playing in CHAN. If you watched the fighting spirit yesterday, it came from the resilience of the NPS,” he said.
Currently, Kenya Police FC are the holders of the Kenyan Premier League title.
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