Kenyan female and male cops forced to live together as housing crisis continues to bite

OCPD Musa Kongoli and NPSC chairman Johnstone Kavulundi with Commisioner Mary Owour tour old police houses in Kisumu. Photo: Titus Munala Policemen have been asked to live with their female colleagues as housing crisis hits the service. In the unprecedented move causing murmurs of discontent, CID officers were recently ordered to make immediate arrangements to accommodate their new roommates.

Out of 294 officers instructed to share rooms, 148 will involve male and female officers living in the same rooms of police rented houses spread across the city. The order affects officers of the rank of constable to corporal. Many of the officers, especially those picked to share rooms with members of the opposite sex, maintain they are not comfortable with that arrangement. Everyone affected “I have been living alone in a two-bedroomed house but now my new roommate will be a young female officer. She will occupy one of the bedrooms while the kitchen, washroom and sitting room will be shared. I don’t know how this will work. It is strange,” said one of the officers. He said even colleagues with large families were not spared in the directive issued on May 28 by Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) boss Ndegwa Muhoro. The order affects all CID stations and elite units. “The DCI (Muhoro) has directed that officers under your command who have been allocated two-bedroomed houses to give room to officers posted or transferred to Nairobi County as shown in the attached lists,” read the directive signed by Peter Mwariri, the Staff Officer Quartermaster. Among some of the surrounding environs where detectives will share houses include Ruiru, Thika, Gatundu and Kikuyu. The DCI has about 3,000 officers spread across the country. Their work is largely covert, normally carried out by specialist units such as anti-banking fraud, special crime prevention, flying squad, ballistics, anti-terrorism, bomb squad, cyber forensics, anti-narcotics and general forensics. The work of CID officers comprises collecting, tabulating and recording the history and data of criminals, undesirable and suspicious people across the country. Seven years later... As outlined in the 2003-2007 strategic plan, it had been projected that the government would provide the National Police Service with sufficient accommodation and transport services. But seven years later, the service is still grappling with the same old problems. Housing and transport remain the biggest challenges with Nairobi and Mombasa facing serious terrorist threats
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