Thursday, 13 August 2015 - Just days after she was sentenced to 18 months probation under the care of her parents after pleading guilty to charges of being in possession of bh@ng, a high school girl who was among 45 other students who shocked the country after they were caught engaging in s3x, smoking bh@ng and drinking alcohol in a Nairobi bound bus, has threatened to take legal action against the Inspector General of Police for the manner in which she was treated while in custody.
Through her lawyers, the secondary school girl revealed that she will be seeking to have all her criminal proceeding squashed, her sentence dropped in addition to demanding a Ksh5 million compensation from the State for the way she was indecently treated and exposed on social media. According to the young girl the way her case was handled devastated her entire family.
Speaking during a recent media interview, one of the girl’s lawyers, Gladys Wamaitha, revealed that a petition will be filed against the Inspector General (IG) and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) as they bore the ultimate responsibility in terms of how suspects are treated.
The lawyer also wants the court to compel the DPP to publish regulations governing the way suspects who are female students are treated.
“We will be seeking for the whole criminal process to be quashed with respect to this young girl. She is a vulnerable person. Was the criminal process explained to her? Did the search that was conducted on her meet the provisions of the law with respects to searching a female and a young girl? Was she given the right to counsel? Under the Constitution, the State has an obligation to protect the rights of vulnerable groups and in this instance, it is a young girl. She was taken photographs while wearing school uniform so that also has to be taken into account. When she was in court, were her rights protected. How did they arrive at the issue of probation? Was she given an opportunity to mitigate?” she posed.
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