Police to wait three years for uniforms as cash crunch bites

Police have to wait until 2023 to get their new uniforms amid a cash crunch that has delayed production of the kits, the Interior ministry has said.

Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho and Inspector-General of Police Hillary Mutyambai on Tuesday told Members of Parliament that their budget allocations cannot foot the procurement bill for its 64,000-member force.

The government launched the Persian blue uniforms in September 2018 as part of reform changes in the National Police Service (NPS) that also includes refresher training.

The ministry has so far not disclosed the cost of the new uniforms even after inviting local and foreign firms to bid for the tender in February last year.

“The numbers are big and the budget cannot accommodate all at once. We, however, have a schedule to complete this process in three years,” Mr Kibicho told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

The delays come despite assurances by Interior Secretary Fred Matiang’i last year that the government had already paid local textile companies contracted to make the uniforms as he refuted claims that the state was planning to import them.

“We have no problem providing our officers with new uniforms, in fact we have already paid for them,” Dr Matiang’i said in December.

The Eldoret-based Rivatex East Africa, the National Youth Service and a factory in Kitui County were contracted to make the Persian-blue shirt/blouse, Persian-blue pair of trousers and a beret with the same colou