The National Assembly’s Committee on Cohesion and Equal Opportunities has directed the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) to enhance counseling services to police officers to save them from untimely death resulting from stress and other psychological issues.

The team told the NPSC Chief Executive Officer Mr Peter Leley to recruit more professional counselors to provide the much needed services.

During the meeting chaired by Hon Adan Yusuf Haji, the team said there was urgent need for setting up more counselling centers countrywide to serve the officers.

The Committee noted that the current regional counselling centers were not adequate to provide services to the increasing number of officers.

Noting that the country was losing many officers through suicide due to stress and other challenges, Hon Haji pointed out that the Commission should urgently address the matter by dispatching more counsellors to serve the officers.

“The right regional counselling centers are not sufficient enough to provide psychological support to police officers,” said the Mandera West MP.

In his submission to the Committee, the CEO explained that the Commission had during the financial years 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 recruited and deployed 38 counsellors and social workers to the regions and 12 centers.

The centers include Embu and Machakos in Eastern region, Lamu and Mombasa in Coast, Kisumu in Nyanza, Nakuru and Eldoret in Rift Valley, Nyeri and Kiambu in Central, Mandera and Marissa in North Eastern, Kakamega in Western and Nairobi regional police, SGB, GSU headquarters and DCI academy in Nairobi region.

Luanda MP Hon Dick Maungu said the centers were too far from the officers.

“It is tough for an officer from my home in Luanda to travel to Kakamega for counseling services. Make such services easily accessible,” he said.

Leley told the Committee that the Commission has established five regional offices to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in serving police officers.

The five regional offices are based in Mombasa, Garissa, Kakamega, Kisumu and Nairobi.

“In the 2023/2027 financial year the commission plans to establish and equip additional five regional offices,” he told the Committee.

Earlier, the Committee had taken the CEO to task for failing to comply with law by ensuring that majority of the communities in the country access job opportunities.

This is after the CEO, in his submission to the Committee, noted that only 24 sub tribes were employed by the Commission.

The Committee had questioned why he was not using the ongoing recruitment exercise to correct the anomalies in tribal imbalance.

The Committee also questioned why the Commission did not adhere to the five percent requirement in recruitment of people living with disabilities.

According to the report tabled by Leley, only three percent of PLWDs were employed by the Commission.

The Committee however hailed the CEO for ensuring there was gender balance in the Commission.

He told the Committee that under the current employment composition, 135 employees were male and 149 female.