This archive report was first published on 18 October 2019.
On October 18, 2019, rights activist Boniface Mwangi made a bold statement against the National Police Service's crackdown on civilians wearing combat clothes.
Donning a combat bomber jacket, Mwangi, a former Starehe Constituency candidate, took a daring photo from the empty Supreme Court bench reserved for Chief Justice David Maraga.
He later posted the image on his Facebook page, arguing that the police were wrong to arrest youths for wearing combat attire.
“Combat is not illegal, but the police's reasoning is. I took this photo from Chief Justice Maraga's seat. Politicians and their children can wear camouflage, but street youth are arrested for wearing combat clothes. That's discrimination. The police have turned street youth into ATM machines,” Mwangi wrote.
Former Inspector General Joseph Boinet had previously banned the public from wearing combats or attire resembling disciplined forces' uniforms.
