By Betty Luke
Journalists across the country have condemned police brutality during the arrest of nine of their Embu colleagues who were covering evictions in Makima, Embu County on Saturday.
The nine scribes were arrested alongside Mbeere South Member of Parliament Geoffrey King’ang’i who had gone to console the evicted families when police officers pounced on them.
The journalists who were released on Sunday morning without any charges preferred on them decried harassment by police officers for confiscating their cameras before the arrest and manhandling them while in the police cells last night.
Already Embu Media Association has threatened to sue the government for what they termed as an affront to press freedom and harassment.
MP King’ang’i was released on Sh50,000 police bond.
The evictions were meant to clear residents from land that belongs to Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority (Tarda) with the affected families maintaining that they were unlawfully evicted since that was their ancestral land and some had even buried their kin in the area.
Among the journalists arrested were Joseph Mukundi of Royal Media Services (RMS), Coro FM’s Mary Wangari, Denis Makenge of U-TV and Standard Group’s William Moige.
Others were Brian Musyoka of County FM, Athiani FM’s Felix Ndambuki, Dennis Bundi of Meru TV, Royal Media Services’ Peter Mungai and Solomon Mwaniki of Standard Media Group.
