Prison warders who enrolled for further studies and graduated in 2016 will not be promoted.
Prisons Commissioner General Josiah Osugo told the over 160 warders who had expected to be promoted to various ranks in August that the exercise had been shelved.
In an internal memo seen by this writer, the commissioner said: "Those to be promoted must have been in their current ranks for at least five years instead of three years as before."
The development, according to the warders who cannot be named for fear of being victimized has demoralized them.
"We have been demoralised by the new promotion rules," one of them told this writer on Friday.
"We read malice in this."
Initially, warders who enrolled for further studies would get promotion immediately after graduation.
The rules according to Mr Osugo have changed such that warders who graduate now have to wait for as long as five years to be promoted.
According to the disgruntled warders, money that was to be paid to them over and above their current salaries after being promoted has been released by Treasury.
They also claim that some warders have worked for the last eight months without pay.