By K Omwanza
I have woken up to horrifying news that my great friend, supporter, and ardent CORD blogger, Kefah Wesley King Onyinkwa, was arrested yesterday at Bellavista Club in Kisii while sharing dinner with friends.
The men who executed the arrest identified themselves as CID officers. Kefah is remanded in Kisii, and is likely to be transferred to Muthaiga.
The police officers did not state a reason for the arrest.
Let me state this:
I am a strong supporter of the rule of law, justice and fairness. I believe that any person who contravenes any of our written laws should be brought to account.
If Kefah authored, spoke, or did anything unlawful, then by all means let him be brought to book.
However, I am a little apprehensive that the officers effect the arrests unprocedurally, and in so doing, violate the suspect’s rights.
According to reports, the CID officers did not inform Kefah the reason for the arrest, as they should.
I take particular note of a mischievous trend bigwigs and corporations are taking when seeking to oppress and extrajudicially punish their opponents and critics.
For those who remember, Cyprian Nyakundi was arrested a few weeks ago, on a Friday evening. Kefah was arrested yesterday evening. There are so many vexatious arrests of bloggers effected during weekends or on the eve of weekends, only so that these individuals get to spend the longest time in detention before being brought to court, when they can be released on bail.
Most of the charges are petty, if unsustainable. And the complainants often only being vexatious. They only seek to punish their enemies by having them detained for long during the weekend (since the 24-hour requirement to be brought before a court is frozen during the weekend).
I kindly ask Edwin Sifuna, as the only advocate I know who has the interests of political and social activists at heart, to urgently look unto this matter (Kefah’s), and see if there can be a way to stop this mischievious tendency of oppressors arresting their critics during the weekend so as to punish them with a long detention.
Let’s pray for our country.
