NAIROBI: A children's rights body has sued police officers for allegedly stripping and posting nude photographs of a female student in Kirinyaga County.
The 18-year-old Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Examination (KCSE) candidate was among 45 students that were arrested on August 5, in a Nairobi-bound bus and remanded at Sagana Police Patrol Base as having been intoxicated and engaging in sexual activities in a public vehicle.
The disturbing pictures of the girl semi-nude as police searched for drugs hidden on her private parts were circulated widely on social media, prompting a backlash against the officers.
The female student now wants to be paid Sh7 Million as compensation for violation of the obligation by police to respect and protect her right to privacy, human dignity, security, access to justice and the right of an accused person.
Justice Weldon Korir directed Cradle to serve Attorney General Githu Muigai, Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko and Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinett before close of business friday and appear before him on Tuesday next week for interparties hearing.
In the application which was certified urgent by Justice Korir, through lawyers Gladys Kinyanjui and Duncan Okubasu, The Cradle Children Foundation told the court that the stripping and photographs violated the girl's rights enshrined in the constitution and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The lawyers told the court that the IG bore the ultimate responsibility in terms of how suspects are treated and the conduct of police officers had an impact on his office.
The Cradle Children Foundation also wants the High Court to quash the conviction of the student who was arrested with four rolls of bhang later arraigned and convicted on August 10, by a Baricho Court after pleaded guilty to charges of being in possession a narcotic substance with a street value of Sh80 .
"The petitioner, despite being a vulnerable person and unaware of the implications of the criminal justice process conceded to the search and photography as well as a plea of guilty," stated the court documents seen by the Standard.
The right's group wants the court to compel the DPP to institute criminal proceedings against the police officers who took the photographs and posted them on social media.
According to the court papers Cradle wants the court to declare that the police's conduct constitutes an unlawful and unreasonable infringement on the student's fundamental rights and freedoms.
She claims that when she reached the police station, in the presence of fellow female and male students both male and female police officers and the public she was indecently searched
She says that in the course of the unfitting searching the police took and allowed third parties to take her nude pictures which were later widely circulated in the social media.
"In the process a police woman took pictures of my nudity in the presence of fellow male students, male police officers and members of the public an incident that was embarrassing and distressing," she stated.
The petitioner states that since the photographs were posted she has been embarrassed and mentally distressed as a result of grossly invasive misconduct on the part of police at Sagana Police base.
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