The government has announced that it will embark on the process of recruiting about 5,000 police officers next year after a two-year hiatus.
Speaking during an interdenominational service in Lodwar, Turkana County on Sunday, December 15, Deputy President Kithure Kindiki announced that the government will embark on the recruitment exercise in March next year.
According to Kindiki, the recruitment will target to bolster security efforts in the country and other volatile areas.
Kindiki made the announcement when highlighting some of the steps that the government has been taking to address the high rates of unemployment in the country.
GSU officers during the rehearsal parade at the National Police College Embakasi ‘B’ Campus in Nairobi.
Photo
NPS
”We have employed additional officers to the Kenya Defence Forces and even for that of police officers that had delays, we will be recruiting about 5,000 police officers in March,” Kindiki announced.
”We are trying to create more job opportunities in the public sector and the informal sectors,” he added.
Among the areas that Kindiki revealed the government will be seeking to deploy the officers include the northeastern parts of the country.
The DP also announced that a new cabinet Secretary for Interior would soon be announced by President William Ruto.
He added that he will be working closely with the new CS to build on the security strides he made while serving as the Interior Minister.
”We are praying for a new Interior CS who will soon be announced and we will work with him/her closely to build on the strides we made earlier,” the DP revealed.
The last time Kenya conducted a recruitment exercise for junior officers for the National Police Service(NPS) was in March 2022.
A planned recruitment for 2023 was postponed, and the DP then serving as Interior CS announced that the next recruitment would occur in early 2024, though it did not materialize. This delay also affected the recruitment of prison officers, which was initially scheduled for 2023.
The delayed recruitment was majorly due to financial constraints on the part of the government, caused by the servicing of growing public debt, forcing the government to cut recurrent expenditure.
Police Officers during the closing of the Multinational Security Support Mission to the Republic of Haiti Course at the National Police College Embakasi ‘A’ Campus.
NPS
