A female student who made headlines a week ago following an incident, in which she was stripped by police officers during a body search, is now demanding for Sh 5 million as compensation from the State for the manner in which she was indecently treated and exposed on social media.

According to one of the girl’s lawyer Gladys Wamaitha, they will be petitioning the Inspector General of Police and Director of Public Prosecution over the manner in which police handled the girl before and after the arrest.

“The main petition is against the Inspector General of Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions. This is because the Inspector General of Police is a duty bearer of some of these rights in the Constitution like the rights of arrested persons. He is the investigating organ and he bears the duty to ensure those rights is respected and protected,” Co-counsel Duncan Okubasu said.

The girl was among 45 high school students who were arrested a week ago for smoking bhang, drinking alcohol and having sex in a hired matatu on their way home after schools closed for the August holiday.

The girl had hidden bhang and a matchbox in her underpants and was sentenced to 18 months probation, under the care of her parents, after pleading guilty to the charges.

Photos of her being stripped by police officers circulated on social media and following a public outcry, the officers who subjected her to the demeaning ordeal were sent home.

Her counsel further wants the court to compel the DPP to publish regulations governing the way suspects who are female students are treated and are also seeking to have her sentence quashed and her court records expunged.

“Under the Constitution, the State has an obligation to protect the rights of vulnerable groups and in this instance, it is a young girl. She was taken photographs while wearing school uniform so that also has to be taken into account. When she was in court, were her rights protected. How did they arrive at the issue of probation? Was she given an opportunity to mitigate?” said Wamaitha.

This story is a chilling reminder of some of the ways the Kenyan justice system oversteps. In this country we have many issues of summary justice or heavy-handedness from the cops. We all remember well the story of Liz, a schoolgirl raped and left for dead, and how it promoted a social media campaign for justice.

In that story, Liz’s case was seemingly not taken seriously. The initial punishment given to those that had raped her was forcing the perpetrators to cut the police station’s grass.

Read more on that story here: ‘Sign ‘Justice for Liz’ petition, young girl gang-raped at 16’

An update on this story: 

‘School-age girl stripped by police officers is awarded KSH 4 million’