Kenyan female police officers demand appropriate uniform during pregnancy

Kenyan female police officers from Mombasa County have come out to demand for appropriate uniform during pregnancy.

They argued that the current uniform they don compromises their comfort while pregnant.

“It is quite unfortunate for female officers who are required to dress in the uniform even when one is pregnant, we are now being forced to seek advice from our bosses on what to wear to work when our pregnancy begins to show, they only advise us to hide our pregnancies into buggy trousers and a shirt, which one is unable to tuck in when you are heavily pregnant and would cost”, an officer revealed.

Another officer revealed that they were being forced to apply for early maternity leaves, due to the discomfort caused by putting on trousers during pregnancy.

“You can imagine at six months, with a trouser which you are supposed to tuck inside a shirt most of us are now preferring on taking early maternity leave to avoid the distress that we have undergone while carrying a pregnancy, being pregnant in the police force is enough punishment,” another officer said.

They now call on the National Police Service, to come up with maternity-friendly police uniforms for female officers.

“We demand for the NPS to look into our cry, we have suffered enough in silence and we are now coming out seeking answers to bring to an end the untold suffering some of us have undergone, by releasing specific guidance on maternity uniforms,” another female police officer said.

Topister Juma, Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI) gender officer, said that they had received many complaints from female police officers, seeking to petition n(NPS) to include

“After receiving and documenting cases of police officers, who have developed health complications due to lack of maternity uniforms, we feel their rights have been violated and we have now begun advocacy to introduce maternity uniforms among the disciplined forces we are compiling the list of all those affected before taking the necessary action,” she said.