Why there's nothing wrong with new police uniform

The new police uniform

In his September 18 opinion piece in the Daily Nation titled “New police uniform a sartorial disaster, discard it with haste,” Macharia Gaitho riled against the rank and file of the police service for replacing the old police uniforms which were smart, classy and sexy with what he calls “atrocious product”.

Macharia had the guts to refer to the new police designer uniforms, which took time, money, years of research and expertise to come up with and, I’m reliably informed, was designed by a team of top fashion gurus in Beijing and Vigilance House; as “atrocious product”.

“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?” Macharia fired.

If you ask me, this is a stab on the back of the police who are burning the midnight oil to implement the much needed police reforms. I’m not afraid to say that Macharia is a gun for hire.

For donkey years, the boys in blue have been wrongly accused of being incompetent and corrupt. Accusations they dispute.

We’ve watched in disappointment as traffic cops get arrested by anti-corruption sleuths for accepting kitu kidogo from generous motorists who buy them chai in appreciation of the good job they do.

So in responding to the deafening calls for reforms, the police leadership, is putting its best foot forward to ameliorate its shattered image and the first step in acquiring a new acceptable image is to jettison the current uniform which scares Kenyans silly and reminds them of ghosts of the past.

Of course the bad history can’t be blamed on the police but Kenyans who are always on the wrong side of the law buy use police as scapegoat.

However, instead of appreciating the positive things from the Afandes, Macharia and a bunch of Kenyans on social media have turned our boys in blue into the laughing stock.

The most disgusting part is where he claims that the new uniform, which renowned clothing designers have given a clean bill of health, will make our Afisas look like watchmen and even insinuated that the men and women who’ll be kitted in the new attire 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.”

This tackle by Macharia is wrong in so many levels. First, the choice of the colour of the new police uniform is relevant, they’re the boys in blue. No colour fits this description better than the blue colour.

Second, the design is just out of this world. As for the complaints on the size of new uniform, it’s large enough to accommodate big belly that’s now a permanent feature in police service. You see even Inspector General Boinnet’s hat never.

No one should demand for a size of uniform that fits tightly, police job has never been about fashion but about kicking the bad guys out of the streets.

 Any police officer who doesn’t have a potbelly should work hard toward acquiring one. The uniform cannot be reduced to fit their skinny bodies, they must grow and fit in the uniform. Period!

Third, new uniform has large pockets. Bravo! Finally we’ve a uniform designed to fit the needs of our hardworking men and women in the service. The large pockets are not designed to please fashion conscious Kenyans or designers like Macharia Gaitho but to serve a purpose.

Let’s give credit where it’s due. The new police uniform is a design masterpiece. It’s dope. The fact that it doesn’t tightly fit the boys in blue makes it a fashion breakthrough.

We will no longer see a female cop lose her job because her peachy derriere are too exposed. We don’t want cops dressed as celebrities, we want bad ass cops who scare criminals by their dressing even before they fire a shot.

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