New police uniform a sartorial disaster, discard it with haste

The designer in me was last week roused from a long period of hibernation.

I was not inspired into a burst of creativity, but provoked into deep outrage and revulsion by that travesty of the new uniform to be worn by the men and women of the National Police Service.

I may be meeting Inspector-General Joseph Boinnet as you read this.

I have a basketful of questions on the expected outcome of the police reforms unveiled last week, issues of training and professionalism, lack of technical capacity, corruption on the roads, police brutality, failure to contain violent crime and surrender of entire regions to terrorists, bandits, cattle rustlers and ethnic militia.

Unfortunately, all these important issues will have to join the queue behind the one burning question of the day: Who designed the new police uniform? Was the task left to a bunch of idle officers with no sense of aesthetics? Who approved that atrocious product?

Were the outfits modelled at the unveiling on Thursday made by a professional garment manufacturer or left to some jua kali fellow with a rickety sewing machine?

DISASTER

Everything about that launch was a disaster. The officers selected to model the new outfit before none other than President Uhuru Kenyatta did no credit to the image of the service — unless potbellies and a generally unfit and unkempt look are now the accepted standards.

There is still a lot to digest and analyse on the raft of police reforms unveiled that day; unfortunately, everything had to be relegated to the back burner because the entire discussion has been dominated by that ugly uniform.

Mr Boinnet and Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i might want to justify the need for the new look. Merger of the often-feuding Kenya Police and Administration Police formations might have necessitated a new ‘unified’ uniform not associated with either of the two. A revamped look also acts as a powerful indicator of a new direction.

But a new look must also indicate progress and improvement, the discarding of old habits and adoption of new and better standards. What we were presented with is something far worse that what it replaces. Instead of signalling a march forward into new beginnings, we are seeing retrogression, a step backwards.

UNIVERSAL HORROR

If social media chatter is anything to go by, there is an almost universal horror on the new outfit. It may have retained the ‘boys in blue’ concept but, instead of a rich navy blue as with the present trousers worn by officers on the beat, or the formal tunics of the top brass, the designer came up with a shade of the colour that is painful to the eye, more of an electric cobalt rather than royal blue.

Then there is the untidy design that will look not good even on Mr and Ms Body Beautiful of the service, a finish that is an insult to the tailoring profession.

Other than the general public, I gather that even the men and women who are supposed to be kitted in the new uniform are not impressed. Casual chats with cops on the beat over the past few days reveal that they are unhappy, echoing public views that they will not be distinguishable from municipal constabulary or those watchmen at the lower scale of the private security industry.

Before the outfits go into full production, Mr Boinnet should listen to public opinion and call a halt to the sewing machines. He can then order a fresh start involving competent professional designers and, most critically, listen to the views and opinions of the officers who will wear the new uniform.

COMPETENCE

He must also pay keen attention to the competence, experience and capacity of the factory that will stitch the outfit.

It has been mentioned in the recent past that the National Youth Service garment production unit will be given a monopoly on outfits for all uniformed services. Well and good, but it should only get that job if it can produce at acceptable standards.

If it is the one that made the initial batch of the new police uniform, then, clearly, it is below par and will need to improve.

This should remind us that a Kenyan company used to provide impeccable uniforms for the Kenyan military. It did world class work and even attracted orders from countries around the region and from as far down south as Namibia.

Another local company produced all the brass and silver belt buckles, buttons, medals and other accoutrements that glitter on police and military uniforms.

Both companies were eventually denied the businesses because some fellows in the security procurement industry decided that it was more profitable, for themselves, to contract overseas manufacturers for inferior products.

[email protected]. Twitter: @MachariaGaitho