Student stripped naked by police awarded Sh4M

A traffic police officer inspecting a bus intercepted at Kiangwachi in Ndia Constituency, Kirinyaga, August 5, 2015. The Nairobi-bound bus was ferrying students and other passengers from Karatina. A student, from Kanyama Secondary in Mathira, was arrested after she was found with drugs. [File, Standard]

A teenage girl who was stripped naked by a police officer searching for drugs has been awarded Sh4 million.

The female police officer stripped the high school student while searching for bhang, photographed her naked, and circulated the photos on social media.

The victim was in a group of students arrested in 2015 on accusations of abusing drugs after the police seized a matatu ferrying them home from school.

And yesterday the High Court found that the girl was inhumanely treated and ordered the State to pay her compensation.

Although the girl had admitted having the drug and was convicted by the magistrate's court to serve 18 months’ probation, the judge ruled that the search and arrest were illegal.

“A strip search is generally humiliating and invasive in nature and in the instant case, it affected the dignity of the girls and in particular the petitioner. Photographs annexed to the petition attest to this,” Justice John Mativo ruled.

He added: “Searching any person that involves exposure of that person’s naked body, and in particular most private parts thereof, to the gaze of another person is degrading. The conduct of the fourth and fifth respondents (DPP and the police officer who was in charge) and her colleagues was inherently inhumane and amounted to degrading assault upon their emotional, physical, and psychological integrity.”

Justice Mativo said the police officers' actions were cruel and against the law. He noted that detaining the girl in a cell for a day was equally wrong and traumatising.

On August 5, 2015, police intercepted a Nairobi-bound matatu along Karatina road, which allegedly had 37 intoxicated students.

Police stopped

The vehicle was ordered driven to a police station and the students searched.

The girl, 20, told the court she boarded the matatu at Karatina.

Her school principal had said students should not travel on the matatu but they did not heed his call. They protested that they had paid fare to Nairobi.

On the way, the court heard, the bus picked up more students.

When the police stopped the vehicle, the girl narrated, a male student gave her a substance in a folded paper to hide for him.

She told the judge that she was not aware that what she was given was bhang.

At the police station, she was ordered to unbutton her blouse and asked to pose for photographs. Then her inner garments were taken off and a police officer took another photo on his mobile phone.

Then Central region police boss L.K. Kieng, in an affidavit filed on his behalf by Attorney General Githu Muigai, denied that his officer took the photos.

He told the court that unknown people had taken photos of the girl and posted them on the internet.

Another officer, Susan Karori, told the court there was nothing wrong with the search and insisted that it was properly conducted.

The two senior officers said an inquiry into the release of the nude photos cleared the officers.

Criminal proceedings

But the evidence of the officers contradicted what Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko had told the court.

The DPP had said investigations had found Police Inspector Agnes Magiri culpable and criminal proceedings were instituted against her.

The DPP said the officer was charged with subjecting the girl to inhuman and degrading treatment. He said the officers infringed on the girl’s privacy and acted against her best interests.