Uproar over circulation of bhang-in-underwear photos
After the shameful exposition of the bhang-in-underwear students, many parents with secondary school going children have reasons to wonder what form of activities their children engage in away from home without their knowledge.
And there are many more questions that are still answered after social media users shared and re-shared the pictures of the naked school girl who was humiliated for the whole world to see.
One question that begs for an answer is who circulated the pictures of the girl? Fingers have been pointed at the police for this action. But why would they have done such a thing?
If it’s indeed the police, then they should be held accountable to what they did.
Most people empathize with the parents of the young adults, for having their teenage girls to drop their pants for a photographer. What the public wants to know is who took the picture.
VIOLATION OF THE LAW
In the wake of the incident, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) reacted by condemning the treatment meted on the students by the Police.
In a statement circulated to newsrooms on Friday afternoon, the Authority noted that while it is right and proper that action must be taken against anyone violating the law, whether young or old, the only way to deal with those who break the law is through the due process provided by the law itself.
The statement signed by chairman Macharis Njeru, cited provisions in the Constitution of Kenya [Article 51 (1) and Article 29 (f) ] which guarantees a person who is detained or held in custody all the rights and fundamental freedoms as well as the right not to be treated or punished in a cruel, inhuman or degrading manner.
“In light of the foregoing the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) is greatly concerned about reports emerging especially in the social media which appear to indicate that the students who were arrested in the bus headed for Nairobi were subjected to treatment that appear not to have been in consonance with the afore-cited Constitutional postulates,” Njeru said.
Njeru added that where the Authority’s investigations reveal culpability on the part of a member of the National Police Service, it will not hesitate to recommend prosecution and/or disciplinary action against such police officers and their superiors who fail to take appropriate action.