(NDIMA/IFEX) – On 10 December 2000, police beat up a photo journalist working for “The People Daily” newspaper in Naivasha town, (about eighty kilometres west of Nairobi), in the Nakuru District, in the Rift Valley Province. The incident occurred moments before a meeting by the lobby group Mageuzi (Change Over) was due to start. Collins […]
(NDIMA/IFEX) – On 10 December 2000, police beat up a photo journalist working for “The People Daily” newspaper in Naivasha town, (about eighty kilometres west of Nairobi), in the Nakuru District, in the Rift Valley Province. The incident occurred moments before a meeting by the lobby group Mageuzi (Change Over) was due to start.
Collins Kwayu was beaten up after he attempted to take photographs of heavily armed police officers in riot gear who were patrolling the town’s streets to ensure the group’s rally did not take place.
The police officers, under the command of local police boss inspector Joseph Wasisi, pounced on the photographer with kicks and blows, before hurling him into their vehicle. Acting on orders from the Nakuru department OCPD (Officer Commanding Police Division), the officers later confiscated the photographer’s film and threatened to expose it.
A concerted effort by “The People Daily” crew, later in the evening, was successful in securing the release of the journalist and the confiscated film after playing tricks on the officers and successfully convincing them that the “offensive” shot had been removed. Citing unknown laws, local District Officer (D.O.) Clement Samoei had earlier claimed that it was a criminal offence to photograph policemen.
