Special police unit feels ‘abandoned’ in Mandera
Police spokesperson Dr Resila Onyango during an interview at her office in Nairobi on January 13, 2022. She said the National Police Service is aware of the Quick Response Unit and their deployment to Mandera but said she was not in possession of further details regarding their allowances and promised to dig into the matter.
In April 2020, a total of 262 police officers were deployed to Mandera County under the Quick Response Unit (QRU) following orders issued by former President Uhuru Kenyatta, but they now claim to be neglected and their fate unknown.
Speaking to the Saturday Nation, several officers said they had overstayed by more than two years in Mandera, where they had been sent to counter threats posed by insurgents in the county.
They should have returned to their stations in May 2021, exactly a year after their deployment, they said.
The officers said some of their colleagues have died and others are in hospital following attacks by suspected al-Shabaab militants.
They complained that they had not received their Sh20,000 monthly hardship, extra duty and extraneous allowances since May 2021.
This, they added, had raised questions as to where this amount, now totalling more than Sh130 million has been channelled to for the past two years.
They told the Nation that all the other units that had been deployed there were withdrawn more than a year ago, leaving the police officers stranded.
“We had been deployed specifically to the North Eastern region. It is now almost four years since we came to this jungle. We would get Sh20,000 as allowance. It stopped after one year, in May 2021, yet we have been here for more than three years now,” an officer said.
Interestingly, the General Service Unit, the Border Patrol officers and other units that had been deployed around the same time were withdrawn after a year, as another set was brought in, another police officer said.
“The food rations have been reduced, the vehicles have not been serviced and sometimes we do not even have fuel,” he said.
The officers also raised concerns over the failure of the National Police Service to issue them with transfer letters when they were deployed to their new workstations.
One officer, who had previously been stationed in Nairobi, revealed that his name still appears on the duty roster at his former workstation yet he has been in Mandera for the past three years.
'Forgotten by government'
The officers said the government seems to have forgotten that a special unit had been deployed to safeguard the country against terrorism in the volatile North.
“What is this unit called QRU? No one knows where it came from and where it is going. Other units are known but this QRU is not being heard of anywhere. We have been here for three years; we have been forgotten. Our allowance has been rescinded, we are suffering,” a disgruntled officer said.
“We ask that we be recognised by the new administration and that all our allowances be sent to us. We have overstayed here. We work really hard to counter and prevent al-Shabaab from attacking the country. Our grievances should be addressed,” he said.
Several officers intimated that they had taken loans against the allowances and now had to contend with huge deductions from their reduced earnings.
A pay slip seen by the Saturday Nation showed that one officer had more than Sh20,000 in monthly deductions and has been taking home less than Sh5,000 for the past two years.
Police spokesperson Resila Onyango said the NPS is aware of the QRU and their deployment to Mandera but said she was not in possession of further details regarding their allowances and promised to dig into the matter.
Dr Onyango explained why the officers’ names were still on the duty rosters at their previous workstations.
“Unless an officer leaves the service (NPS), his or her name will always be at the mother station even when deployed to a special assignment, only when he or she leaves the service will the name be removed from the station,” she said.
She, however, did not respond to our questions on their allowances and overstay in Mandera.
