Police Salary cuts a consequence of Poor Jurisprudence

Recently, the Kenyan populace have been treated to the disturbing news that some graduate police officers of other ranks had their salaries cut as they were demoted back to lower job groups as a consequence of a recent court ruling on the graduate officers in those ranks. “Other ranks” in the police refers to the ranks below the rank of Inspector of Police. Many an opinion have been passed and even the COTU secretary general, Francis Atwoli weighed in on the issue with a feeble plea to Dr Fred Matiang’i. A terrible spectacle considering he  is supposed to be a fighter for workers’ rights. Such fights do not succeed through being nebbish and pitifully prostrating at the feet of authorities in a bid to have them practice fidelity to existing laws. Wake up, brother Atwoli! You losing your mojo.

Many of those opinions seem to blame the government for acting as it did. And government can hardly escape responsibility in a matter like this. Government can not claim to suffer from the same problems individuals suffer from while interpreting a ruling by a judge. They have at their disposal a flurry of legal experts at the state law office that can clearly and objectively interpret the law and advice on how to move forward following a ruling. Either the state law office is sleeping or it does not operate independently as invisaged in the law. State law, interprets the law to suit the political leaderships desires. They are not being guided by their oath of office. 

Blame however, should and must be placed in the right place. The court. In my opinion, this is the right place to put the blame as far as this matter is concerned. The judge pronounced herself on the matters before her desk but failed to interpret that ruling to the parties before her. Whenever a judge makes pronouncements on matters of law, they ought to ensure that the pronouncements so made do no entertain any ambiguities. Thus, I believe from the onset that it’s the responsibility of the presiding judge to clear the air about the correct meaning to the pronouncements she makes. When this is not done, the parties before the court are given a blank cheque to do the interpretation by themselves and this may lead to further actions that may offend other existing laws. 

The matter before the court was whether graduates of other ranks who were not receiving the benefits already being enjoyed by some their colleagues deserved to be given those benefits. After presentations, the judge found that they did not deserve to be awarded such benefits. However, she did not explain whether the ruling also meant that those who were already enjoying the benefits should have the benefits thereof withdrawn – which would ultimately offend the international labour laws by which we as a country are bound. 

Rulings on matters of law, are not supposed to create new legal disputes neither are they supposed to be interpreted in any way that leads to offending other existing laws. Had the judge practiced sound jurisprudence, she could have made pronouncements on the possible consequences of various interpretations of her judgment. Even if we assume that her view could have been that the state law office is supposed to be objective in the interpretation of the judgment and so she may not have seen the reason to venture into such, the blame lies on her for not understanding that governments are perpetually willing to infringe on citizens’ rights and unwilling to cede any ground in that regard. State law office is government and state law office is, especially, political government. 

A few things come out from this protracted conflict between police officers and their employer. Firstly, government action is clearly in contravention of the existing labour laws. Secondly, it appears that there is no properly structured promotion regime in existence within the Police service. Perhaps this is the reason a person can actually retire in the same job group he joined the service. Finally, there is no clear reason why police ranks, which are basically responsibilities, are rigidly tied to the job groups causing very unacceptable stagnation for police officers. In other government departments and agencies, it’s possible to move up a job group without moving up a responsibility. There need for reforms beyond a change in uniform and renaming of the senior ranks. There indeed is.