Pauline Njoroge: How Police Framed Me Leading To Arrest

Communication strategist and blogger, Pauline Njoroge, spoke for the first time on Thursday, July 27 regarding her arrest in Watamu, Kilifi County during the past weekend.

In a lengthy post on social media, Njoroge claimed that the orders to have her arrested were issued days prior from above, with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) beginning to track her immediately before arresting her on Saturday, July 22.

A day before the arrest, the Jubilee Party Deputy Organising Secretary recalled receiving a phone call from a person working for a bank, claiming that he had confidential documents that he wanted to give her in Malindi and urged her to go alone.

"This startled me because I had not posted anywhere that I was at the Coast. So how did he know? Anyway, I decided to ignore it.

"Nduta also received a call on Saturday morning from a person who wanted to know whether she does tours in Mombasa. We discussed these things and decided to carry on with our day," she wrote in part.

Njoroge revealed that she and her friend, Jane Mwangi Nduta had left that afternoon for a tour of Gedi Ruins, Hells Kitchen and the first Church in Malindi, set up by the Portuguese. However, they found a double-cabin vehicle parked outside the resort when they left the hotel.

Nduta commented that the occupants had the demeanor of police officers but Njoroge's driver had informed them that they were probably neighbours.

"We passed the vehicle and proceeded to join the tarmac road. We had hardly gone a kilometre before the very same vehicle blocked us on the road and asked us to follow them to Watamu Police Station. I was however able to alert my advocate and a core group of friends that we had been picked up by the Police.

"Once we arrived at the station, they took my phone. They however allowed Nduta to keep hers so long as it was within their sight. The situation however changed and even her phone was confiscated. They also took Emmanuel's phone," she added.

Njoroge further recounted that the police then proceeded to interrogate her and Nduta in separate rooms as the driver was left outside in the vehicle. Meanwhile, the officer questioning Nduta suggested she could leave but she declined and said she would wait for Njoroge.

After about two hours, the officers took the women back to their hotel to search their rooms and found collagen and vitamin C supplements in Njoroge's room which were in the container she had purchased them in, which were what they labelled psychotropic substances.

"They finished the search in my room and we began to take inventory of the items they had taken, which now included my laptop. As we were doing this, one officer came carrying a roll of bangi and said that she had found it behind the TV.

"Nduta and the officer engaged in a back-and-forth. That was the first time in my life that I was seeing a roll of bangi. My friends can confirm that," she went on.

The officers took her friend's multivitamins, omega and collagen supplements as well as her laptop, all her notebooks and all her reports and a novel she had carried. Her supplements were also labelled psychotropic substances.

They then informed the women that they would search the car upon returning to the police station, whilst the driver had sat in throughout the ordeal. 

"Interestingly, as soon as the officers started searching, 2 rolls of bangi appeared out of nowhere on one of the seats. At that point, I told the officers that it was now clear the games they were playing in order to fix us, but since we were helpless in this situation we were going to leave the matter to God in heaven who judges the affairs of men. It was obvious that they were thinking through what to charge us with, and trying to make anything stick.

"Long story short, the 3 of us were locked up and one of our lawyers who came to the station that night read to us the OB statement which was already in circulation. It indicated that we had been arrested for being in possession of narcotics and psychotropic substances," Njoroge continued.

On Monday, July 24, Njoroge and her friend were ready to be presented to court but they were kept waiting in the cells from morning to midday without knowledge of the events that had transpired.

"Later on we learnt that those dealing with the matter in Watamu were still not sure what to charge us with or who would appear as the investigating officer since this was really not their case. The orders were coming from Nairobi.

"At around 2 pm we finally arrived in the Malindi court. The only document available at the time was an application with 15 counts, but there was no charge sheet. The prosecutor brought the charge sheet when the court was already in session, therefore it could not be admitted. It is important to note that there was no mention of narcotics on that charge sheet. Even as per the application, I was supposed to be charged for hate speech against the Head of State and hate speech against the State, which is unheard of and cannot apply under our constitution," she complained.

Njoroge accused the State of detaining her as well as Nduta and the driver for two nights and presenting them in court without reason, as the 15 counts in the application did not mention Nduta and the driver.

"As for me, I still do not know what crime I committed to warrant my detention. As we speak, my gadgets are with the Cyber Crime unit on Kiambu Road, because the powers that be are desperately still trying to get something to pin on me after their previous attempt failed terribly and exposed their evil scheme," she added.

Entrance to Malindi Law Courts. /CAPITAL GROUP