Police Housing Policy Shift: A New Approach to Officer Living Conditions
The government is exploring a significant change in its approach to police housing, with a potential shift from current policies that require officers to live outside their duty stations. This move aims to ensure that all police officers reside within the compounds of their respective stations.
Inspector General of Police (IG) Douglas Kanja proposed this idea during a meeting with the National Assembly’s Committee on Administration and National Security, chaired by Narok West MP Gabriel Tongoyo. The suggestion came as part of a broader discussion on improving living conditions for police officers and enhancing operational efficiency.
Current Challenges in Police Housing
Kanja highlighted the inadequacy of existing housing facilities, which are often located far from duty stations. He emphasized that only a small number of officers currently reside in the older, deteriorating police housing units. This situation forces most officers to seek alternative accommodation, often several kilometers away from their workplaces.
The IG pointed out that the National Police Service (NPS) has approximately 20,000 housing units, but the workforce consists of around 100,000 officers. Even with shared occupancy arrangements, the majority of officers remain without proper housing. The existing houses, he added, are in poor condition due to insufficient maintenance and delayed renovations.
“This has adversely affected the welfare and living standards of officers who occupy them,” Kanja said. “Housing has certainly been a problem, and because of the uniqueness of our services, we find that most of the time it has been in our camps or stations.”
Proposed Solution: Institutional Housing
To address these issues, Kanja urged prioritizing the construction of officer housing within station grounds. He argued that this initiative would not only bring officers closer to their workplaces but also enhance discipline and reduce costs associated with long commutes.
Despite the policy shift that led to the transfer of housing management responsibilities, Kanja reported receiving numerous complaints from affected officers. Many of them travel long distances to reach their duty stations, which impacts their overall performance and morale.
“The welfare of officers is central to morale, productivity, and integrity within the NPS,” the IG stated. “Well-supported officers are better positioned to serve the public professionally.”
Housing Allowance Framework
On the topic of housing allowances, Kanja explained that the NPS follows the recommendations of the recent task force report led by former Chief Justice David Maraga and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission’s revised formula.
Under the current framework, housing allowances are structured based on job groups and deployment locations, which have varying costs of living across different clusters. Cluster A covers Nairobi, while Clusters B and C cover other regions. The highest allowance for Job Group T is Sh80,000 in Cluster A, followed by Sh70,000 in Cluster B and Sh52,000 in Cluster C. For the lowest job group F, the allowance ranges from Sh9,500 to Sh5,500, depending on the cluster.
Affordable Housing Initiatives
Kanja welcomed President William Ruto’s directive to reserve 20% of affordable housing units for police officers. He believes this will provide access to decent and affordable home ownership for officers.
Following the transfer of police housing management to the Housing Department, the IG noted that the NPS no longer receives budgetary allocations for the maintenance or refurbishment of housing units. However, for the financial year 2025-26, the NPS has an allocation of Sh15 billion for housing allowances and an additional Sh20.8 million for capital projects related to police housing.
Progress on Housing Projects
Acting Secretary for Housing Cassius Kusienya provided updates on the transfer of housing units to security agencies. He revealed that 33,517 units were transferred to security agencies, including 16,551 to the Kenya Police Service, 7,631 to the Administration Police Service, and 9,335 to the Kenya Prisons Service.
Kusienya also mentioned that free housing for officers living in police lines was discontinued in December 2018, replaced by a market-based housing allowance for officers below the rank of Inspector. However, this shift has created challenges, with some officers still facing improper payroll deductions for units they no longer occupy.
Due to budget constraints, only minor repairs in 525 units have been completed. Under the affordable housing program, 962 units for police are either completed or ongoing, while 4,681 units are part of newly awarded projects. Additionally, 400 projects have been awarded but are yet to commence, and 3,099 units are in the procurement stage.
Parliamentary Scrutiny
MPs, led by committee chairman Gabriel Tongoyo, questioned the documentary evidence on completed projects. They emphasized the need for certificates of completion to be presented to the committee, with documents to be supplied to Parliament by next Tuesday.