WINDOW TINT HAS BECOME A NATIONAL CRIME

Credit needs to go to the Kenyan Government in its efforts to try and stomp out terrorism in a country that is being rocked to its core at the moment.  The last week has seen the largest evacuation effort of people since the 1960’s as the UK travel warning was upgraded that caused the mass exodus of British citizens.  I can’t say that they have gone about their initiatives in the best way from charging the drivers and conductors if the Thika bombing’s for not screening their passengers causing the bombs to detonate, from the targeting of the Kenyan Somali community as they deport illegal aliens, possible terrorists and locals for not carrying their ID’s which is law in the country. 

The latest initiative that was rolled out this week was window tinting on your cars was made illegal-OVERNIGHT.  If you were caught with window tint, your car would be immediately impounded.  The theory behind the ban is that it would help promote national security; with the removal of the tinted windows it was a positive step to combat the war on terrorism in Kenya.  The directive was issued by the Inspector general as part of the government’s efforts to curb rising terrorism that has cost the country hundreds of lives in the past few years.  The police boss said the ban applies to all vehicles driven on Kenyan roads regardless of who owns them or what they are used for.  “This is the law and it must be obeyed by everyone. It does not matter whose car it is. Even foreigners driving into the country must remove the tint from their vehicle windows if it is to be driven on Kenyan roads,” Mr Kimaiyo said.  Well this statement caused so much confusion, via What’s App, SMS, Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets.  Initially it was believed to be applied only to the PSV (public service vehicles) and taxis, so there was a collective sigh of relief from the private drivers of the country and was reaffirmed via a Twitter feed from Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo.  Just when many thought that that the police had come out clear on the order on cars with tinted windows, the Inspector general of Police the very next day did a total backflip and with an article featured in one of the major newspapers saying it was for ALL vehicles on the road ordering the vehicles with tinted windows to be impounded in accordance with the law.  It seems sometimes that the Government passed laws with no thought process, no idea of logistics and no idea of how to implement them.   

Well the controversy that came from the backflip in the article spread like wild fire. 

What about cars that came with factory tint on the windows?

How about vehicles that have been imported with tinted windows where local replacements are not available-does that means the vehicle is grounded until then?

Most of Western European and American embassy vehicles have full tinted windows and most operations carried out by CID officers, use vehicles that have tinted windows-will they remove the tints now?

All vehicles belonging to the President, Cabinet Secretaries, MPs and other dignitaries have tints-will they have to remove their tint also?

Security wise it also posed a lot of questions.

Of course this rule also affected me.  When I got my car (Suzy Blue) I got the darkest tint possible installed on my windows and it was purely for security.  The darker the better as people could not see that there is a foreigner driving, a female foreigner and also how many people were in the car.  For me it was a proactive move to keep myself safe every time I got behind the wheel of my own car.  It sounds a little paranoid, but it is the cold hard facts of driving in a city where there isn’t a day that passes where people are not robbed or held up at gunpoint in their vehicles.  EVERY DAY.     

The biggest question was how they could change the law overnight and the Law Society of Kenya agreed and made its voice clear that the order by the Police Inspector on removal the car tint on all vehicles was illegal and cannot be implemented immediately. The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) Chairman Eric Mutua says they will contest the directive in a court of law.  The Law Society of Kenya say that the directive by the Police Inspector “decree and declaration” is unlawful and could not be enforced in any court of law and the LSK offered to defend any person whose private motor vehicle is impounded by the police on account of tinted windows.  “We are aware that the traffic act only bans tinted windows in public service vehicles, that is why we will defend private motorists who will be arrested,” said Mutua.  Some police officers were already taking advantage of the directive, harassing motorists on the roads and asking for bribes.  The Independent Policing Oversight Authority has criticised the impounding of private vehicles with tinted windows.  It urged members of the public to report any incidences of “unlawful harassment, arrest, intimidation, demands for bribes and impounding of motor vehicles with tinted windows” to its offices for action.

To get to the legality of it all and what the Law Society of Kenya is referring to is as follows:

 “Rule 54 A (1) of the Traffic (Amendment) Rules 2009 provides as follows: ‘A person shall not drive or operate a public service vehicle that is fitted with tinted windows or tinted windscreen.’ As can be seen from the foregoing, this section of the law clearly specifies public service vehicles as the ones prohibited from use of tinted windows or tinted windscreens.  “It is therefore completely erroneous and irregular for the police to impound private motor vehicles on the purport that they have tinted windows,” read the statement.  “Indeed a public service vehicle is defined under Section 2 of the Traffic Act (Cap 403) to mean any motor vehicles which: is licensed under part XI to carry passenger for hire or reward; or plies for hire or reward or is let out for hire or reward; or is carrying passengers for hire or reward.  Therefore “The Authority wishes to reiterate that any directive which is not in compliance with the spirit and letter of the law amounts to an unlawful order. Section 51 (2) of the National Police Service Act clearly stipulates that police officers are not required to comply with unlawful orders which in turn “Consequently means, there is no requirement for police officers to comply with the directives attributed to the Inspector-General of Police.”

All this swirled around in the media and social media for days after the initial statement.  Based on the LSK (Law Society of Kenya) statements people were not sure whether to remove the tint off their cars or not.  Even with the LSK saying they would take on cases, if you did get pulled up because of the tint, you would still have to go through the process of your car getting impounded and the hassles that would be involved in getting your vehicle back, fines (fines…..) that would have to be paid, paperwork and the time, to me it didn’t seem worth the 20 buck tint I had on my windows.  I even checked with my friend Steve and he had paid 800KSH (10 bucks) to have his removed to be on the safe side.  I was seriously thinking on Friday afternoon, removing my tint, and then I got side tracked and didn’t get around to it.  I then thought about it a little longer and living on ‘my’ side of town, there are not a lot of traffic police, where on the ‘other’ side there are traffic police on all the major roundabouts and traffic corners.  It would be a no brainer for me if I lived over that side of the city.  But we don’t have the volume of traffic, hence the lack of traffic police and I decided to just sit on the removal of my tint.  In saying that I felt like a criminal driving in my own car the last few days, knowing that I should be taking the tint off, so much so, that driving to gym yesterday, I took a different route than the bypass way I usually go, as I know there are traffic police at one of the on ramps and I didn’t want to get stopped.  I took the risk after gym driving back that way and as I got close to the police checkpoint I wound down all my windows so it didn’t look like I had the tint and I didn’t get stopped.  My heart was racing and I think I would make the worst criminal based on my rebel on the tint stance!!!!  It also made me more aware of other cars, and I kept checking that I wasn’t the only ‘bad ass’ on the road to which I am happy to report, I wasn’t.

So as it stands, I still have my tint on my car.  I am uneasy about it, but I am going to wait it out a few weeks and see where the directive takes and stands.  Knowing Kenya, I am sure it will swing back and forth, it is okay, it’s not okay, it is okay, it’s not okay.  So I am happy to sit tight and just hope and pray in the meantime that I do not get pulled over.  Oh I am a rebel……. NOT.