Macharia Gaitho: Abduction traumatised my family
Veteran journalist Macharia Gaitho has recounted his harrowing experience at the hands of DCI detectives who disguised themselves as kidnappers just to arrest him.
Mr Gaitho says he was being driven to work in the morning by his son, identified as Andrew when they noticed a strange white vehicle following them.
He then drove to the Karen police station to report the incident of being followed from behind by unknown people, only to be shocked when the same people followed him inside the police station and forced him into a white Subaru car.
The veteran Daily Nation columnist says the ordeal was unbearable for his children and his mother, who is 95.
“It is traumatising when you are abducted by unknown people who do not identify themselves. When I asked them to identify themselves, the answer was that they had a Subaru and that I should know that they were policemen and that they had guns,” said Mr Gaitho.
Even after he insisted that the so-called officers should show their cards if they were indeed the police, they refused and instead handcuffed him as they drove away quickly.
“I have never had to go through abduction, kidnapping by people who I don’t know whether they are police or terrorists. Up to now, I don’t know whether they were policemen or terrorists,” he said.
While he accepts that his job means that he is most often confronted with security issues, he never thought he would be abducted in this way, in front of his children.
“Andrew, my son, was brave. He managed to drive me straight into the station… obviously for an 18-year-old young man to go through that, to see his father abducted in a very brutal, violent way, must be very traumatising for him. It is traumatising for my other children who are all here, who got the news and wondered what had happened”.
Mr Gaitho says his 95-year-old mother, who lives in the village, will be affected by the incident when she gets wind of what has happened to him in the capital.
“It is traumatising for my mother in Nyeri at the age of 95 to get the news that her son has been kidnapped and she doesn’t know by whom…for me I call it the hazards of trade but there are these young people who depend on me.”
The National Police Service later came out to defend their actions, claiming that his abduction was a case of mistaken identity, which has been rubbished by both the victim and the country’s journalists’ associations, who have called on the government and the security apparatus to put their house in order.
“That Francis Gaitho (the wanted person) does not go where I go, because they followed me from my house. That Francis Gaitho, as far as I know, does not drive the car that resembles mine. It was me they were looking for, it was me they were chasing,” Mr Gaitho said, reiterating that he would not be silenced by the incident.
Ms Zubeida Kananu, who is the president of the Kenya Editors Guild (KEG), said Mr Gaitho’s abduction was uncalled for and that media professionals in the country would show the way forward by demanding protection from the police.
This comes in the wake of a frightening scenario in Nakuru on Tuesday where a K24 journalist, Ms Wanjeri Kariuki, was wounded by police who pointed their guns at journalists covering protests.
“We have the right as journalists in the country to inform the citizens of what is happening and we will not stop and we will not be intimidated from doing our job,” said Ms Kananu.
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