By Isaiah Lucheli
NAIROBI, KENYA: The high court has barred the police from impounding private vehicles with tinted windows saying the law only applies to Public Service Vehicles (PSV).
High court judge George Odunga on Tuesday restrained the Inspector General of the National Police Service from arresting and impounding private vehicles with tinted windows until a suit filed by a motorist is heard and determined.
A motorist Okola Akitch has moved to the court challenging the new regulation arguing that it was contrary to the traffic rules of 1953 which provided that a person shall not operate a PSV vehicle that is fitted with tinted windows or windscreen.
The rule further states that tinted means shaded coloured or treated in a similar manner so that the person or objects inside are not seen clearly from outside.
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Akitch argues that the law exclusively prohibits the use of tinted windows with regard to PSVs and added that the order made by the police were unlawful, irrational and unreasonable.
“The directive by the IG to impound all vehicles with tinted windows is grounded on gross error of fact by purporting to state that privately owned vehicles are also subject to the directive,” he submitted.
The applicant added that he IG in making the directive as he did was actually going against his mandate as spelt out in The National Police Service Act.
