High Court Judge, Bahati Mwamuye, issued the directive in response to a suit filed on July 31 by Florence Wairimu.
The High Court in Nairobi has directed that all police officers wear either a nametag or a service number clearly identifiable and affixed on their uniforms when providing security or dealing with protesters.
High Court Judge, Bahati Mwamuye, issued the directive in response to a suit filed on July 31 by Florence Wairimu.
“A conservatory order be and is hereby issued requiring the 5th Respondent to ensure full compliance with Paragraph 10 of the Sixth Schedule to the National Police Service Act in terms of ensuring that all uniformed Police Officers or persons acting under the direction, control, or in support of the National Police Service shall at all times affix a nametag or an identifiable service number in a clearly visible part of their uniform when engaging with, providing security for, or in any way dealing with any person(s) who is or is planning on assembling, demonstrating, picketing, or petitioning; and they shall not remove or obscure the same,” Mwamuye ruled.
A plainclothes officer firing at journalists at close range during recent anti-government protests. /FILE
Furthermore, police officers in plain clothes or who are non-uniformed and may be deployed or utilized in any manner with regard to a person(s) who is or is planning on assembling, demonstrating picketing, or petitioning shall not in any way hide or obscure their face so as to render them difficult to identify or unidentifiable.
This simply means that the officers should not wear balaclavas or face masks in any attempt to conceal their identities.
The National Police Service was further directed by the court not to obscure the identification, registration, or markings of any motor vehicle being used when in any way dealing with any person(s) who is or is planning on assembling, demonstrating, picketing, or petitioning.
“I am satisfied that the petitioner/applicant has met the requisite legal threshold for the grant of interlocutory conservatory orders within a constitutional petition,” he stated in the ruling. The matter will be mentioned on September 17, 2024.
The suit came after some protesters accused NPS of allowing their officers to wear face masks while enforcing arrests during the anti-Finance Bill 2024 protests.
Several videos also emerged of plain-clothed individuals believed to be police officers forcefully abducting individuals.
Recent directives by the High Court have been seen as measures aimed at reducing torment and casualties caused by excesses from the police during recent anti-government protests. However, it remains to be seen if the latest directives will be followed to the latter.
On June 28, the High Court issued a directive barring the National Police Service from using water cannons and teargas to disperse protesters during demonstrations.
Police officers were blocked from also using live ammunition, rubber bullets or other crude weapons or draconian measures against those demonstrating in any form of protests.
Furthermore, law enforcement was also barred from deploying brute force or any form of violence or committing any extrajudicial killings.
Police were also barred from making arrests, abductions, detentions, harassment, intimidation, torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment against peaceful protesters.
The court issued the directives following a petition filed by Saitabao Ole Kanchory who sought the court’s intervention following the recent brutalities witnessed across the country.
In his petition, Kanchory sued the Inspector General of Police, Japhet Koome, the Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki, the Attorney General Justin Muturi and the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA).
However, recent protests have shown an ignorance of court orders as police have used teargas to disperse protests as well as make several arrests.
