A section of Kenyans was puzzled after a Kenyan flag appeared flying upside down at an Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) event attended by President William Ruto.
The anomaly was first spotted in a series of photos Defence Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale shared on Sunday. The CS was also part of the meeting.
"IGAD lauds President William Ruto for bringing two warring parties in Sudan to the table for political dialogue," celebrated Duale alongside the photos.
Ideally, the Kenyan flag should be flown with Black colour at the top and green at the bottom but in the recent case, the green appeared at the top.
According to the Kenyan Constitution, however, it is not clear whether deviation from the normal flag display has a special meaning as held by other countries.
The National Flag, Emblems and Names Act only prohibits unauthorised display of the flag by individuals but does not clarify how the piece of clothing should be displayed.
"No person shall display at any place or on any premises any flag or banner or permit any flag or banner to be so displayed, being in either case a flag or banner (other than a specified emblem) which is reputed to belong, or is held out by any authority as belonging, to the territory of Kenya or of any particular part thereof (other than the area of a local authority)," reads a section of the Constitution.
"Any person who contravenes subsection (1) of this section shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to both such fine and such imprisonment."
The black colour on the flag represents the people while red represents the bloodshed in the fight for independence. Green stands for the fertility of the land while white represents peace.
Meaning of Inverted Flag in Other Countries
Globally, inverted flags have for many decades been used by sailors to signal that the ship's crew was in distress and need of assistance. The US, for instance, acknowledges the reason in its Constitution indicating that flags should not appear upside down “except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.”
Some travellers also used the inverted flag as a signal to others that the ship had been taken over by foreign forces, in most cases terrorists.
Protesters across the world also used an inverted flag as a form of protest to show that the group disagreed with a decision made by the government of the day.
In other countries such as Thailand or Japan, the inverted flag has no special meaning at all.
