• Those suing are among the 3,739 others who submitted their degree certificates to the NPSC in 11 centres countrywide between May 2 and 5 for vetting.
• Cops said it is ridiculous for the government to hire graduates to take up administrative positions in the service while overlooking long-serving and experienced officers who have similar qualifications.
Image: FILE
Selective reviews of police officers' job groups and delayed salary increments have triggered a legal battle between graduate officers in lower cadres and their employer National Police Service Commission.
IG Joseph Boinnet and AG Paul Kariuki have been roped into the tussle waged by officers from twin services Kenya Police and Administration Police.
The aggrieved are thousands of officers left out in job group upgrades after submitting university degree certificates to the NPSC. They say the upgrades have been done in a discriminatory manner.
Ordinarily, police constables hired with only O level certificates are in the job group "F", while those with degrees are in job group "J".
However, many seek recruitment as constables although they hold degree certificates, and are placed in the job group "F", while others school while in the course of service with the National Police Service and acquire degree qualifications.
They are supposed to get a job group upgrade from "F" to "J" together with attendant salaries after the NPSC updates their employment records to reflect the qualifications attained.
While some officers have been getting the salary increments and upgrades immediately after submitting certificates, thousands have been denied the benefits after this review.
“We took out loans of up to Sh500,000 for undergraduate studies to improve our capacity to deliver better services to Kenyans. But after undertaking further studies we are not getting a pay rise. We are left unable to repay the loans," said a police officer who sought anonymity.
“It is becoming unbearable because some of us are getting a pay of as low as Sh7,000, which is hardly enough even to feed ourselves because of the deductions for the loans. We wonder why the NPS has turned its back on us, yet our requests to further education and undertake the degree courses had been approved."
FIGHT FOR RIGHTS
Those suing are among the 3,739 others who submitted their degree certificates to the NPSC in 11 centres countrywide between May 2 and 5 for vetting.
The NPSC had sent a memo requiring all police officers with degrees to submit them for verification before the subsequent job groups and salaries reviews.
But majority, including some who have held degree certificates for more than four years, are yet to see any difference in their payslips and are still in the lowest job, group together with those only with the KCSE and primary school certificates.
More than 6,000 police officers either joined NPS as constable despite having degree certificates, or obtained them after employment, and about 2,500 of them have been upgraded to Job group "J".
Those who have sued are aggrieved by the delay, which has left them earning the same as their peers who hold KCSE and KCPE certificates, despite making academic strides.
LOOKED DOWN UPON?
3,739: Graduate police officers supporting the suit.
Sh500k: Average loans they took to pursue university degrees.
11: Centres NPSC required officers to submit degree certificates to for verification in May last year.
800: Graduates the government wants to hire as specialists to boost administration of police service.
10: Average number of years most officers claiming higher pay have served.
6,000: Average number of serving police officers with degrees.
2,500: Number of degree holders in lower cadres but upgraded to job group ‘J’
The officers went to court after their wait for the NPSC to review their salaries failed to yield any results. The police officers' case was filed by Musyoka Murambi law firm on Friday, and the Attorney General is listed among the respondents.
"The NPS and NPSC have been whimsical in processing the upgrades by selectively and maliciously upgrading some of the officers while leaving out others," they state in the petition.
The cops want the High Court to declare the conduct and action of the NPS and the NPSC of failing to review their salaries to be commensurate with that of graduates amounts to denial, violation, infringement and a threat to their fundamental rights and freedoms.
They also want the court to declare their rights to fair labour practices, fair treatment, remuneration and reasonable working conditions.
The petitioners are seeking the court to declare that police officers who hold university degrees and are on a salary scale below job group "J" and yet similarly qualified others are in that category, to have been discriminated against.
They accuse Boinnet, Kihara and the NPSC of violating the national values and principles of public service and protection of economic and social security.
The officers state the NPSC has been in front line in assuring police officers of equal opportunities and treatment in terms of pay, benefits, promotions and responsibilities as police officers.
"Petitioners and other similarly qualified graduates have been retained at the job group, "F" notwithstanding the fact that they submitted their degree certificates to NPS and NPSC upon graduation," the petition reads
"There is no good reason nor explanation as to why graduate police officers in the same rank [constables], job description and responsibilities, and same qualifications are paid differently and retained in two different job groups."
RANK DISPUTED
On March 19 last year, the NPSC issued a press statement equivocally confirming that payment of special salaries [Job group "J] for graduate constables is legally protected and provided for, in the service policy guidelines.
However, the petitioners said that assurance notwithstanding, the NPS and the NPSC continue to neglect and refuse to pay them and others with similar qualifications the salaries attendant to their additional qualifications.
The letter did not envisage officers recruited as constables who then acquire degrees in the course of their serviceGeorge Kirigwi, NPSC
But in a joint replying affidavit filed by the NPS director of human capital development, George Kirigwi said the NPSC has implemented the recruitment, appointment and promotion regulations of 2015, and the NPS career progression guidelines launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta in August last year, when he unveiled the new police uniforms.
Kirigwi said the two policy documents do not provide for any rank known as "Graduate Constable", and all officers are recruited as police constables. He said the policy documents set the prerequisite minimum qualifications for every rank in the service.
The senior officer said the NPSC had advised the NPS against upgrading the salaries of the graduate police officers through a letter on December 5.
He said officers have been sensitised on the guidelines that provide for clear career progression process with clear entry levels and promotion from one rank to another.
Kirigwi said the cops erred in relying on a letter written by the PS in charge of the directorate of personnel management to his Internal Security counterpart in July 1995.
The PS had directed a salary increment for officers with degree certificates. The then police commissioner received an approval to consider and accordingly remunerate graduate police officers at Job Group "J".
But Kirigwi said the directive was meant to benefit "university graduates recruited as constables and placed under intensive training".
"The letter did not envisage officers recruited as constables who then acquire degrees in the course of their service," Kirigwi states in the affidavit.
He says the letter was annulled by the implementation of the guideline policies of NPSC 2015, which is the only guiding document for promotions.
The official said the junior police officers erroneously alleged violation of their constitutional rights on fair labour practices, as the same are limited by the constitution for members of the disciplined services.
"The state counsel has advised me that the petitioners have not in any way at all specified with precision, the manner in which the IG has denied, infringed and violated their constitutional rights. It is clear from the foregoing that the petition is deficient and discloses no justifiable cause to warrant the intervention of by the court," Kirigwi said.
OVERLOOKED IN HIRING
The aggrieved officers faulted Interior CS Fred Matiangi's announcement last year that NPSC will recruit 800 to join NPS.
During the GSU graduation in February last year, Matiangi said the 800 would join as specialists in managerial level. But the serving cops wonder why the officers are expected to join the service at the rank of inspector.
The cops said it is ridiculous for the government to hire graduates to take up administrative positions in the service while overlooking long-serving and experienced officers who have similar qualifications.
"Some of us have been in the service for up to 10 years and hold degree certificates and have experience, having served in various parts of this country. What makes those being hired as graduates better than us? This is a ploy for senior government officials to bring in their cronies and relatives to the plum jobs in government," said an officer.
"Having served in lower cadres, we have practical experience on this work, including filing crime reports and using them to monitor crime, manning cells and report offices, interrogating suspects, planning and executing security patrols and gathering intelligence. We have also learnt working with other government agencies and security sector stakeholders to decimate crime."