High Court Bars Plain Clothes Police From Covering Their Faces During Protests

The High Court has prohibited plainclothes police officers from covering their faces while handling protests. 

In a ruling on Wednesday, August 14, at the Milimani Law Courts, Justice Bahati Mwamuye ordered that the officers should not in any way make it difficult for them to be identified. 

The judge further directed that police officers dealing with protestors should at all times have their nametag and service number affixed on their uniform and clearly visible.

"A conservatory order be and is hereby issued requiring the 5th Respondent (National Police Service) 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.

"Where plainclothes or non-uniformed police officers are deployed or utilized in any manner with regards to person(s) who is or is planning on assembling, demonstrating, picketing, or petitioning, police officers shall not in any way hide or obscure their face so as to render them difficult to identify or identifiable," the judge ruled.

He also ruled that police officers should not obscure the identification or registration of a motor vehicle used while dealing with protestors.  

Justice Mwamuye issued the conservatory order pending a ruling on a petition filed before the court.

"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.

During the recent anti-government protests, police officers were captured on camera covering their faces with face masks as they engaged with protestors.

Some of the officers also drove government vehicles with their registration numbers covered.