Charles Owino: Why police service prefers recruiting officers with grade C plain and below

Police Spokesperson Charles Owino has now come out to explain why the service prefers to employ officers who attained grade C plain and below.

According to Owino, officers who attained grade C+ and above come to the service with unrealistic demands and are unlikely to work as hard as their counterparts with lesser grades.

The Police Spokesperson, who spoke on Citizen TV’s Day Break show early Wednesday morning, said the most important trait in the recruitment of an officer is intelligence, not high grades per se.

“We have a challenge when we employ every policeman with grade C+ and above…they go back to school, they get their degrees, they come back and tell you ‘now we don’t want to serve at this level.’ For every 9 police officers, we may only have one corporal and one inspector…so you cannot promote everyone to those levels,” he explained.

“We get officers at direct entry inspectorate, then let’s also get officers who have C plain, C-, D+…people who will work at those levels for a longer period of time, they’ll become corporals, sergeants…because we need all these levels.”

He further added: “What is important in recruiting a policeman (is that) you just need an intelligent person, and intelligence is not merely meted on the grade you got…Yes, it’s an assumption, but I can tell you we’ve had people from disadvantaged areas like North Eastern but they’ve done a very good job. There’s a lot that it involves, it’s not just high grades only. You come in with good education, you pocket and don’t do your work, it’s not your education that will do your work, you must be practical, and you must earn your promotions fairly.”

Charles Owino – Police Spokesman: We have a challenge when we employ every policeman with Grade C+ and above. They go back to school, get degrees & come back and ask for promotions. It is important we get officers who have C plain, C – & D+.#DayBreak@TrevorOmbija pic.twitter.com/9J2p4XnUQ4

— Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) March 17, 2021

Owino also advised Kenyans to avoid bribing police officers saying corruption starts with and from them first.

According to him, police officers do not earn too much money in salaries hence most of them are likely to be drawn into temptation and accept bribes when it is offered.

“People are very weak to money…but what I’m saying is corruption must stop from the public before it comes up. It’s the same public complaining that will get into their car without insurance, and then you drive all the way from your house in Imara Daima and you get caught at the roundabout in Nyayo and you’re the same person offering the policeman a bribe,” he said.

“And you know this policeman earns very little, because we cannot afford to pay the policeman all the money in Treasury, then you give this policeman money, what are you trying to do? It’s wrong for a policeman to take a bribe, but it is worse for you to attempt to bribe a policeman.”

Charles Owino – Police Spokesman: These police officers earn very little and then you try to bribe them… It is wrong for a policeman to take a bribe but it is worse for you to attempt to bribe a policeman.#DayBreak@TrevorOmbija pic.twitter.com/jLDpW4Dfnu

— Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) March 17, 2021