Content creator and vlogger Miss Trudy is in the news again, this time for calling out airport security at the Mombasa International Airport who she claims arrested her for filming at the premises.
“We got arrested for filming at the Airport! This is getting out of control! We have a right to create content without intimidation,” said the vlogger in a video shared on her official Twitter handle.
“This shouldn’t be happening in 2023. I’m not doing anything illegal. I am a Kenyan citizen. I am not even filming in the security zone. I am outside and I am being harassed,” she said.
Airports are among the government facilities designated as protected areas/controlled security zones. This means that there are specific rules and regulations for anyone accessing these facilities, and one of these rules is that filming is not allowed without written permission from the Kenya Airports Authority.
The Kenya Civil Aviation Security Regulations 2020 59 (1-c) states that a person commits an offence by operating a portable electronic device when such act is prohibited.
In addition, Section 56 (b) on Offences and Penalties states that a person commits an offence if he refuses to comply with a lawful order issued by the airport operator on behalf of the Authority by an aviation security officer or authorised person for the purpose of ensuring order and safety at the airport or of any person or property at the airport or for the purpose of maintaining good order and discipline at the airport.
In 2016 Makadara Law Courts Senior Resident Magistrate Stephen Jalang’o ordered four British nationals to pay a Sh200,000 fine or serve a one-year jail term for filming aircrafts at the Wilson Airport in Nairobi without obtaining permission from relevant authorities.
The four, Stephen Gibson, Ian James Glover, Edwin Swift and Paul William Abbott, were charged with taking photographs of different aircrafts at the Wilson Airport without permission from relevant authorities. They pleaded guilty to the charge.
