NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 16 – President William Ruto has urged the police to deal firmly with insecurity, cattle rustling and corruption after the Inspector General of police was designated to be to be the Accounting Officer of the National Police Service (NPS).
Speaking during a Kenya Kwanza parliamentary group meeting in Naivasha on Friday, the head of state indicated that this will improve service delivery.
“From now henceforth, the police will have an independent budget. They will not be begging for money from other offices. We will allocate them the resources as it is being done by parliament and we will begin to make demands of them on matters security,” he pointed out.
“In the past, they used to give excuses of depending on finances from other offices. Now they have their own independent financing, we expect improved security in the country, we expect expeditious resolution on matters to do with insecurity and corruption.”
Treasury designated the IG to be the Accounting Officer of the National Police Service (NPS) as directed by President Ruto following his swearing-in on Monday.
This means that the entire NPS budget will be managed by the Office of the Inspector General of Police.
“The Treasury has already written to the IG in line with the president’s directive,” a senior official at State House said, “The IG is now the Accounting Officer of the police service.”
Initially, the NPS budget was controlled by the Office of the President, with the Interior Principal Secretary serving as the accounting officer.
In his first address to the Nation as the Head of State, Ruto said the constitution provides for the IG to exercise independent command over the NPS.
However, the Head of State said that the operational autonomy of the office of IG has been undermined by what he described as the continued financial dependence on the Office of the President.
“As I address you, I have instructed that the instruments conferring financial autonomy to the National Police Service by transferring their budget from the Office of the present and designating the Inspector General as the accounting officer be placed on my desk for signature this afternoon,” President Ruto said Monday.
The Head of State pointed out that the financial independence of the police will give impetus to the fight against graft and end the political weaponization of the criminal justice system in the country.
Five Months ago, on April 7, the treasury announced it had allocated a total of Sh317.8 billion of the Sh3.3 trillion proposed expenditure in the 2022/23 budget to the National security agencies in the country.
In the proposal, Sh128.4 billion will go to the Ministry of Defence, Sh46.4 billion to the National Intelligence Service, and Sh122. 2 billion for the police and prison services.
The Treasury CS said that Sh10.7 billion will go towards the leasing of police motor vehicles and Sh1 billion for the police modernization program.
An additional Sh1 billion will finance the National Communication and Surveillance System and Sh335 million will be used for the equipment of the National Forensic Laboratory.
Other proposed allocations include; Sh4.8 billion for the medical insurance for police and prison service, 2.3 billion for the group personal insurance for police and prison and Sh1 billion for the national integrated identity management system.
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