Wajir:MPs want action taken over chiefs torture

The MPs said Ingirir Chief Abdikadir Omar and Buna Assistant Chief Abdullahi Yussuf had their private parts badly injured in the operation to flush out Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) militants.

The administrators were airlifted and admitted to Nairobi West Hospital in Nairobi. “We demand that the area DC, who chairs the security team, and the officer commanding the police division take full responsibility for the matter,” stated the MPs.

Speaking at Parliament Buildings yesterday, Nominated MP Mohammed Affey displayed photographs of the two chiefs in hospital covered in blood.

“The DC, the OCPD and all those involved have not only to be transferred, but should also be arrested and charged in court,” Mr Affey said.

He said tension was high in Wajir, and that police had also detained a vehicle belonging to the CDF, which was carrying examination papers.

Narrating their ordeal in the hands of the officers, the administrators said police descended on them with kicks and gun butts. “They accused us of harbouring the OLF and supplying them food using the Wajir North Constituency Development Fund vehicle,” Mr Abdikadir said.

The security personnel that comprise of Regular and Administration Police only are in parts of northern Kenya to flush out the militants believed to be hiding there.

“The officers, accompanied by Wajir North OCPD Stephen Chetaka and Buna DO Godana, came to my home requesting me to show them the route to Ingirir, but on the way they descended on me asking me to produce the OLF members,” said Yussuf. The medical report on Yussuf indicates he had a cracked pelvic bone and a ruptured bladder after his private parts were crushed.

He said the officers, who were in 15 vehicles, stepped on his private parts despite his pleas for mercy.

But North Eastern Provincial Police Boss Aggrey Adoli denied the claims. “Human beings have ways of getting publicity. They were not mistreated. The Bill of Rights is clear on what the police should do when arresting individuals,” he said.

In Nairobi, Isiolo South MP Abdul Bahari said he had been informed that two youths from Isiolo had been picked by police and nobody knew their whereabouts.

He said they were shocked by the news of the assault on the chiefs, adding it was unacceptable in this age for such an incident to happen.

“We have not been told that there is a curfew in the area, so the Government must come out and state clearly why it is mutilating the private parts of its own officers,” he added.

Others at the news conference were MPs Adan Keynan, Aden Duale, Nderitu Murithi, Amina Abdallah, Sophia Abdi Noor, Peter Mwathi, Abdikadir Mohammed, Husein Mohammed and Joshua Kutuny.

Mr Keynan described the incident as barbaric, brutal and unacceptable.

The Wajir West MP said it was unfortunate that North Eastern people had suffered since Independence, beginning with the Wagalla massacre. He said there seemed there would be no end to their sufferings, adding security officers knew where the criminal elements were.

He wondered how officers assaulted Government chiefs.

“We are demanding that Saitoti arrests and arraigns in court those responsible for the heinous act because we shall not rest until that happens,” said Keynan.

Source: Standard