(NDIMA/IFEX) – On 9 March 1999, a journalist working with the “People” daily, and based in Kitale town in the Rift Valley Province of Kenya, was charged in court with writing an alarming story. Johann Wandetto was arrested in the early hours of 8 March and locked up at the Kitale Police Station. Wandetto was […]
(NDIMA/IFEX) – On 9 March 1999, a journalist working with the “People”
daily, and based in Kitale town in the Rift Valley Province of Kenya,
was charged in court with writing an alarming story.
Johann Wandetto was arrested in the early hours of 8 March and locked up
at the Kitale Police Station. Wandetto was picked up from his house at
4a.m. by four Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers who had
earlier raided his house but did not find him. He was driven to the
station where he recorded a statement before being locked up. The story
in question referred to an incident in which eight members of the
President Moi security team travelling from Lodwar were said to have
been ambushed and their weapons stolen by militiamen in the West Pokot
district. The raiders were said to have been armed with AK-47 self
loading rifles.
The Kitale Principal Magistrate released Wandetto on a Kshs 5,000
(approx. US$80) cash board.
