Is the government a person?

We'll try to keep this simple. In 2014, 26 members of the Kenya Navy were charged with desertion, based on their having taken jobs with American security firms. They were tried by court-martial and received life sentences. In 2015, however, the High Court overturned the convictions and sentences and ordered the accuseds acquitted on the ground that it had not been a time of war when they absented themselves. In 2016, Parliament passed the Kenya Defence Forces (Amendment) Act, 2016, s. 26A of which amends s. 186 of the Kenya Defence Forces Act of 2012 to allow the government to appeal the High Court's decision. The Court of Appeal has now ruled that the government can indeed appeal, not because of the after-the-fact legislation but rather on the basis of Art. 27 of the 2010 Constitution that had been there all along. Article 27(1) provides: "Every person is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and equal benefit of the law." Here is The Standard's report on the latest decision; here is Business Daily's report. The ruling is not yet on the Court of Appeal's website.

Quaere: Is the government (here, the Director of Public Prosecutions) a "person" for purposes of the constitutional guarantee of equal protection?