Police acted like sex pests in drugs saga

FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2015

The bus which a large group of schoolboys and schoolgirls into a moving drug-fueled orgy. There can be absolutely no excuse for the officers to force teenage girls to drop their pants for a photographer. PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

In Summary

• By Thursday evening pictures were doing the rounds depicting the young girls in such humiliating poses, exposing their private parts and with their faces clearly visible. 
• They must be dismissed from the Police Service and further charged with the appropriate criminal offence. 
• The police officers who committed this outrageous crime against young girls and then compounded it by circulating the photographs must themselves be called to account. 

By Macharia Gaitho

As a fairly responsible parent, though some may disagree, I was outraged and horrified when briefed on the breaking story of a large group of schoolboys and schoolgirls who had converted a bus taking them home for the holidays into a moving drug-fueled orgy.

But ultimately when the whole story was delivered, what outraged, horrified and angered me even more was the conduct of the police officers who held the teenage miscreants. 

There can be absolutely no excuse for the officers to force teenage girls to drop their pants for a photographer. 

By Thursday evening pictures were doing the rounds depicting the young girls in such humiliating poses, exposing their private parts and with their faces clearly visible. 

A policewoman, and maybe a mother, who forcibly lifts up a young girls dress and yanks down her panties for a waiting photographer in my book commits a criminal offence more serious than the one she purports to be investigating. 

Even if they were trying to show that the girls had hidden rolls of marijuana in their underwear, the pictures taken in such fashion would be of no evidentiary value in any court. Recovery of the drugs and identification of the individual found in possession would suffice. 

VOYEURISM AND PRURIENCE

Therefore what we are dealing with here is not good, honest police work, but a voyeurism and prurience that can only be the preserve of sex pests. 

The police officers who committed this outrageous crime against young girls and then compounded it by circulating the photographs must themselves be called to account. 

They must be dismissed from the Police Service and further charged with the appropriate criminal offence.

Meanwhile, let us also not be so hypocritical about the whole issue.

I am a parent and dearly committed to the best moral and ethical upbringing of my charges. I’d presume we all are. 

But before we became parents, we learned life experiences through various stages, and without fail all of us got into some teenage mischief, misadventures and delinquency. 

Any of you who denies this is either a liar or was brought up in a tyrannical and oppressive regime where there was no room for experimentation and expression. 

So let us not outright condemn incidents of teenage misbehaviour, but from the wisdom of our own experiences see how best we can guide, mentor and shape our young ones to be the model citizens we all aspire to become. 

mgaitho@ke.nationmedia.com@MachariaGaitho