Murkomen Calls for Maternity Uniforms as Police Recruitment Date Nears

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has directed the Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja to explore the introduction of maternity uniforms for female police officers, in a bid to address long-standing challenges faced by female in the service.

Murkomen, speaking during the closing ceremony of the OCS’s Consultative Conference at the National Police Leadership Academy in Ngong on Thursday, acknowledged that female officers are often disadvantaged once they fall pregnant because their standard-issued uniforms no longer fit.

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“When female police officers get pregnant, they are forced to take leave because their uniforms no longer fit. I have instructed IG Kanja to consider introducing maternity uniforms for police officers,” Murkomen said.

According to him, introducing maternity uniforms would solve challenges faced by female officers in service including embarrassments as a result of their unfitting uniform attires. He argues that this aims to lower the numbers of officers in service that occasionally drops due to unavoidable fate.

Mass Recruitment of Officers

The announcement comes at a time when the country is preparing for a mass recruitment of 10,000 police officers, with 4,000 slots reserved for National Youth Service graduates. Earlier, President William Ruto, during the NYS recruits’ passing-out parade in Gilgil on August 28, confirmed the exercise would take place in September.

“I have already given instructions to the Ministry of Interior that next month (September), when we recruit 10,000 police officers, 4,000 of them must come from the National Youth Service,” Ruto stated.

Murkomen assured that clarity on the exact date would be provided next week. “By Monday, we should know the day we are going to have the recruitment,” he noted.

The recruitment, however, is not just about filling numbers. With more than 10,000 officers having exited the service in recent years, the National Police Service Commission has struggled to balance staffing demands with limited funding. The new intake, combined with reforms such as maternity uniforms, is expected to not only boost capacity but also address welfare concerns within the service, particularly for female officers.