Not all police officers who have acquired massive wealth are involved in shady dealings, the National Police Service Commission has said.
Commission chairman Eliud Kinuthia said most of the wealthy officers have acquired their wealth genuinely. He said police officers are among the best savers in the country, with the Kenya Police Sacco ranked the third best in the country.
“Suspicion over every wealth belonging to police officers is unfounded. There is no way these people work hard and the only area they fail is to work hard for themselves,” Kinuthia said on Saturday.
He spoke during a meeting of the Kenya Police Sacco attended by Cooperatives PS Ali Noor Ismael, Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai and his predecessor and Tourism and Wildlife CAS Joseph Boinnet in Mombasa.
Kenya Police Sacco chair David Mategwa said the managers have ensured prudent use of funds and have built trust such that even civilians are now joining the Sacco.
“We are ranked third in the country and soon we will be overtaking the second ranked Sacco,” Mategwa said.
PS Ismael said most police officers are hardworking individuals.
“The Police Sacco is doing the right things. When police officers acquire wealth, people assume it is illicit wealth. This is wrong,” Ismael said.
Kinuthia heaped praise on officers, saying they wake up early and sleep late to protect Kenyans. He added that most put in that same effort in their personal development, hence their wealth.
“Our employees work hard for every coin they have,” he said.
A 2016 NPSC report on the police service indicates that only 3.5 per cent of officers are rogue.
Kinuthia, Mutyambai and Boinett said the service has adopted a strategy to focus on supporting the 96.5 per cent of police officers who are good and encourage them to be even better.
IG Mutyambai said the NPS is now a major contributor to the country’s economy, with the Sacco having an asset base of Sh35 billion.
The IG and Boinnet said the Sacco, which has 61,765 members with at least 990 of them having saved at least a million in their sacco accounts, means they are already millionaires.
“On average, police officers borrow loans of between Sh2 million and Sh3 million. This means our officers are prudent savers and investors.
“We are being painted with a poor image that is not ours,” said Boinnet, who has since retired as a police officer.
He said that it is unfair to use a paltry section of the police to vilify the whole service.
“Statistics from the commission show that a vast majority of police officers legitimately earn their income and invest well,” Boinnet said.
Kinuthia said the suspicion over the wealth police have was so high that officers feared having M-Pesa accounts.
“There was a time most closed their M-Pesa accounts for fear of being branded corrupt,” the commission chair said.
Edited by EKibii
