Graduate Cops Richer as NPSC Reinstates Higher Pay

The National Police Service Commission (NPSC) has officially reinstated the full salaries of 1,223 graduate constable police officers after after the Employment and Labor Relations Court ruled that the reduction, and downgrading of their job groups in 2018, was íllegal.

In a statement issued on Thursday, October 6, the NPSC withdrew previous circulars demoting them and abolishing the graduate constable rank. NPSC chair Eliud Kinuthia further advised the acting Inspector General of Police, Deputy IG and DCI chief to pay the officers a salary equivalent to Job Group J, backdated to November 1, 2021 when the salary was stopped, without the loss of any benefits.

The salaries of Graduate Police Constables were first reduced in 2018 by the NPSC after career progression guidelines formulated in 2016 were approved. The officers, however, secured a win in court and their salaries were reinstated before again being slashed in 2021 as the NPSC argued that there was no rank known as graduate constable – sparking another lawsuit against the commission and discontent within the service.

Meshack Mutukho, for example, is one of the officers who sued the commission in 2021. He joined the police in 2013 after graduating from Egerton University and was attached to the DCI a year later. His job group was J.  After the Graduate Constable rank was abolished and his job group downgraded to F, his salary fell to Ksh51,000 from Ksh92,250.

The officers sued the commission last year seeking to have their salaries and job groups restored, and for the commission to be barred from further reducing the salaries. On September 29, Justice Mathews Nduma ruled that the downgrade was unlawful and unreasonable.

The judge observed that the police officers were legitimately recruited as graduate constables under the terms and their rights had ensued under the said terms.

“The National Police Service Commission has withdrawn the Circular No. 1 of 2021 dated 23rd December 2021, that directed stoppage of salary increment for 1,233 Graduate Police Constables in the National Police Service,” Kinuthia affirmed in the statement.

“This is in compliance with the Court order issued on 29th September 2022, declaring the stoppage of upgraded salaries from job group J to F arbitrary, unreasonable and unlawful,” he further noted.

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