Why the Kenya Police chose the blue uniforms - Boinnet

By Mathews Ndanyi

IG Joseph Boinnet insists that the new Blue Colour for police uniforms was selected because its universal and more friendly to the public. Boinnet says the Blue colour is recognized around the world as the police colour and its choice in Kenya would enable the police to easily integrate with the public.

“In the recent reforms the issue of the colour has been more spoken about but we chose it because internationally the colour is more attributed to the police services”,

said Boinnet who was speaking in Eldoret after addressing senior police officer from the North Rift region to sensitize them on the reforms.

Boinnet said the Blue colour is also less militaristic because it distinct from colours commonly used by other security forces.

“We wanted a colour that would be quite different from what is commonly used by security services in the country.

Boinnet defended the reforms announced by President Kenyatta a week ago and said the changes would further help to transform the police into a service and not a force.

He clarified that there was no merger of the regular police and the Administration Police because the constitution does not provide for such a merger.

“What we did is just to restructure the command chain for better service. We are not all merging the two services”, he said.

However he said distinct roles had been created for the DIGs in charge the police and administration police as part of changes to ensure there exists a proper command chain.

Boinnet said there would be no scrapping of some of the positions in the force because the officers like OCPDs would be given different roles.

The IG also defended the decision to let officers leave with the public saying there would be nothing new because senior officers already lived outside police lines.

“There should be no concern because most of our senior officers live with members of the public and have been doing so very well”, said Boinnet.

He said where land is available investors should strive to put up housing units near police stations so that officers who want to be housed near police stations can easily get houses.

“We are giving them a good house allowance to be able to pay rent”, said Boinnet. He said they would go round the country to sensitize police officers on the changes