Constable Philip Omondi who was based in Kimilili has been arrested and will be arraigned in court on Friday, Acting Internal Security Permanent Secretary Mutea Iringo said/FILE
Constable Philip Omondi who was based in Kimilili has been arrested and will be arraigned in court on Friday, Acting Internal Security Permanent Secretary Mutea Iringo said.
“CAP 63 Section 47 of the Penal Code prohibits any person from advisedly attempting to incite members of the disciplined forces from his duty and to incite such persons to make a mutinous assembly is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for life.”
Iringo also issued a warning to others who like Omondi were calling for a go-slow saying their time was running out and they would be apprehended.
“We are also investigating the origin of other SMSs, Facebook and Twitter messages to establish the identity of persons who are generating or circulating similar messages. As soon as we confirm their details, similar action will be preferred against them.”
Iringo insisted the police were not on a go-slow but that; “these allegations are a creation of one officer who has been generating and circulating inciting SMSs.”
The chairman of the National Police Service Commission Johnstone Kavuludi who was present at the briefing however conceded that the police are, “unhappy about the terms and conditions of their service and when people are unhappy, there is a general tendency to slacken in work performance.”
Omondi, Iringo said, was masquerading as Bradley Philip Charles Konjung’a on Facebook when calling on fellow police officers to go on a go-slow pending the implementation of a pay rise agreement.
Internal Security Minister Katoo ole Metito on November 1, announced the release of Sh3.7 billion following reports of police going on a go-slow.
The funds, Iringo said, would be used to implement an 8.5 percent basic salary increment backdated to October and would be included in their November pay. Last year, the police received a 5.1 percent salary increment.
“These funds will also cater for 7,000 police officers to be recruited in the current financial year,” Iringo added.
The PS also sought to assure the police that the government will complete the promised pay increment by next year.
“Under this programme the government has implemented about 70 percent of the negotiated package and hopes to release the final tranche by July 2013.”
Police in Kisumu had threatened to go as far as interrupting the ongoing secondary school examinations should their pay rise not come through soon.
Banking operations in Eldoret and Kisumu town had also been hampered as a result.
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