The events of January,12,2020 are still fresh in the mind of Nakuru-based Journalist Robert Maina.

On this fateful day, Mr Maina was on his official duty as a journalist covering students’ riots at Egerton University Main Campus in Njoro.

He reveals that police officers turned hostile on him, despite having all the tools of trade including his press card.

It is an incident that saw his audio recorder, mobile phone and his press card confiscated as police arrested him and locked him at the security unit, just at the entrance of the campus gate where he stayed for 50 minutes.

“The moment the officers heard me introduce myself as a journalist, they dragged me into this small security room and took all my documents,” he narrates.

Mr Maina admits that his press freedom as well as communication rights were infringed upon as he could not communicate to anyone.

His colleagues realized that something was wrong when he did not file any story for the briefs as well as the 7pm bulletin, something that prompted them to make calls to Maina’s phone.

It was the numerous phone calls from his editors in Nairobi that irritated the police officers who bowed to the pressure and handed him the phone plus the recorder.

“On realizing that the recorder had been on the whole time, the officers snatched the recorder from me and destroyed it,” Mr Maina recalls.

He would later report the matter to Njoro police station where his case was booked under OB Number 54/12/1/2020 at 8.55pm.

Though booked, the matter seemed to be taking a slow pace prompting Nakuru Journalists to hold a demonstration within Nakuru City, demanding justice for their own.

“Journalists joined me in solidarity and we pressured the police to fasten the process. They (journalists) later escorted me to record a statement with detectives in Njoro,” adds Maina.

As pressure continued to pile up from Kenya Union of Journalists, and Editors’ Guild, the then Nakuru County Police Commander Mr Mr Maina to iron out the matter.

This saw Mr Maina compensated for the tools of trade that were destroyed.

“We agreed that due to the court process taking a long time, the matter would be sorted out of court and through the intervention of Mr Matu I was compensated for my tools of trade,” he says.

Maina’s case is just one of the many scenarios where freedom of the press in Nakuru has been interfered with.

pmambili@gmail.com

A bad day in the office for Nakuru journalist Robert Maina

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Pristone Mambili