President William Ruto has allowed the police to wear both the old and new uniforms due to poor quality and shortage of the royal blue attires.
The move becomes another one of President Ruto’s reversal of a key policy decision by his predecessor President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The internal directive will see general duty Kenya Police Service (KPS) officers operating with two sets of uniforms, the old and the new.
National Police Service spokesperson, Dr. Resila Onyango pointed out that the new directive was issued to address the issue of unavailability of the new uniforms as well as poor quality of the fabric.
“There are some officers who do not have enough of the blue ones or have faded as you may have seen in the streets. Since they still have the old ones, they can wear them. We are wearing them concurrently,” she said.
Officers in the senior command ranks of Inspector of Police (IP) and above will be allowed to wear their traditional beige uniforms as well as the new ones.
In 2018, NPS introduced the new royal blue uniforms that were to be worn by all officers under Kenya Police Service for all ranks.
Former Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho had said at the time that the decision by the previous administration to change the uniforms was arrived at through a review by the Uniform Committee.
Former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i at the time insisted that the decision to manufacture police uniforms locally was final.
However, the new uniforms order was met with criticism and protests from officers that the materials were of very low quality which has been compounded by shortages.
The shortage has seen officers having to purchase the uniforms themselves.
President Ruto also made yet another key directive on the uniforms asking Inspector General of Police Japheth Koome to ensure all officers are provided with uniforms by the government.
“I do not expect what has been happening in the past that officers are asked to buy uniforms using their own money,” he said.
“It is my expectation that these officers will be given uniforms by the government. I expect the uniforms will be of quality that meets the requisite standards so that they execute security functions in the Republic of Kenya,’ he added.
President Ruto formed a 23-man taskforce that will review the uniforms as part of his commitment to review police uniforms during his campaign pledges to police officers.