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Broad reforms that include raising the police entry requirements age to 21 from 18 years old, disbanding the current National Police Service Commission (NPSC) team, and a 40% pay increase are among the recommendations made by a task force tasked with investigating the welfare of police, prisons, and National Youth Service (NYS) officers.
The group, which was led by former Chief Justice David Maraga, has also suggested that the grade C minus rather than the current D plus be the new minimum requirement for recruitment into the services.
However, the team suggests keeping the D plus requirement in place for the areas that are marginalized.
In order to address the “immaturity prevalent in the entrants,” the training period for new recruits will also be extended from nine to twelve months, and the recruitment age will rise from eighteen to twenty-one.
However, cadet training will take fifteen months, whereas corporal training will take twelve months.
Among the task force’s top police entry requirements include the following:
- Over the following three years, police, prison, and National Youth Service officers’ salaries will increase by 40%.
- Improved working conditions with a combined house allowance and medical coverage
- Officer hiring and promotion processes that are automated
- No officer will work for longer than three years in the same county.
- Newly hired officers will need 15 months of training.
- At least 100,000 new hires per year for NYS
- The government should think about starting a negotiated exit for the current NPSC Commissioner or using any other legal option.
- Reduce prison populations from the current 62,448 inmates to 29,000
- Reorganizing the Prisons Council to elect a chairperson with the same credentials as a Supreme Court justice
- Raising the minimum requirements to a grade C minus will allow for recruitment into the services. Nonetheless, the D plus requirement will remain in place for the marginalized areas.