Outcry as GSU officers beat up journalists on duty

Citizen TV’s Reuben Oganda is examined by Dr Hussein Altaf Hassanali at the Aga Khan Hospital in Mombasa yesterday where he and another journalist were admitted after being beaten by GSU officers. [PHOTO: MAARUFU MOHAMED/STANDARD]

Malindi, Kenya - Two journalists have been admitted to the Aga Khan Hospital with broken ribs and limbs following an attack by police officers while on duty.

NTV’s Nehemiah Okwemba and Reuben Ogonda of Citizen TV, both based in Malindi, say they were attacked and beaten by officers from the General Service Unit.

The two press men yesterday said they were on a mission to unravel the mystery surrounding the confiscation of the livestock belonging to local herders after trespassing on the Agricultural Finance Corporation (ADC) Galana /Kulalu ranch in Tana River County, where an ambitious multi-billion-shilling irrigation project is planned.

They were beaten with gun butts, kicked to the ground and forced to lie there.

“Two of the GSU officers who had seen my name on my press card told me in my native language that they were coming to finish us and that we were lucky to have been spared,” Ogonda said from his sickbed.

Mr Okwemba complained of pain all over his body following the beatings.

“Our cameras were vandalised by the officers who did not listen to our pleas for mercy,” Okwemba said.

When The Standard visited them, Okwemba was still undergoing checks at the radiology department while Ogonda sat in his ward nursing a leg injury.

“I am in pain but thank God for sparing my life from the brute force of the officers,” Ogonda said.

Yesterday, Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinett acknowledged violence involving police took place at the ranch but did not refer to the attack on journalists.

Severe injury

Dr Ronald Kaale of the Aga Khan Hospital described Ogonda’s leg injury as severe.

The Kenya Correspondents Association (KCA) has condemned the attack on the journalists and called for the prosecution of the officers involved in the assault.

“We condemn this attack in the strongest terms possible and demand that immediate action be taken against the GSU officers. The Government must uphold constitutional provisions, including that of press freedom as guaranteed in Article 34,” said KCA Chairman William Oloo Janak.

KCA also expressed concern over the apparent resurgence of attacks and intimidation of journalists by security officers across the country.

“Similar reports have been reported from the Coast region, Nyanza and other conflict-prone areas. We warn that the journalists’ fraternity will not accept to operate within a climate of fear when the Constitution guarantees them the right to do their work,” said Mr Janak in a statement to newsrooms yesterday.

Others injured in the attack were Governor Hussein Dado’s spokesman Ali Wario Ashaaka, the governor’s security advisor Malim Abaroba Barisa and a driver who is said to be in critical condition.