Police uniform committee extends timeline for public participation
National
By
Amos Kiarie
| Aug 31, 2023
The Kenya National Police Service Uniform Committee has extended its timeline to conduct public participation.
According to the director of logistics Kenya Police Service, Peter Ndung'u, the committee has extended the timeline to allow the public to submit more views on the proposed changes of the police uniform.
"Initially, we had a time frame of up to the September 7 to submit the report to the Inspector General of Police, but due to the emerging issues like officers asking a lot of questions, we realised that we cannot make it on that time line," he said.
He said they requested the IG to push the timeline to the September 19 to make the process thorough and bring all stakeholders on board.
The teams were conducting public forums in Central Region and the Kiganjo Police College seeking view on the new uniform.
Officers from Nairobi region settled on light blue colour uniform through voting, a process that will be replicated in other parts of the country until the end of this week.
The new version has light blue short and long sleeved shirts with officers' name and service number mounted on both left and right pockets and dark navy blue trousers and sweaters.
The proposed uniform was first unveiled in February this year when police boss Japhet Koome donned it during a meeting with his deputy Noor Gabow and Chief Justice Martha Koome at the High Court.
If adopted, the changes will be a shift from the all-royal blue uniform that police officers have been wearing since 2018 when Fred Matiang'i was in charge of the Interior and National Administration docket under the presidency of Uhuru Kenyatta.
Uhuru's administration argued that the royal blue uniform was introduced to increase the visibility of officers.
The intent was also to create uniformity across all police cadres during the merger of the Administrative Police and Kenya Police Service.