Kenyan police on Thursday arrested Health Minister Charity Ngilu following the release of a suspect in police custody by her on Tuesday.
Ngilu, who is the first cabinet minister in Kenya's history to spend night in a police custody, was arrested after being grilled for several hours at the Criminal Investigation Department headquarters in Nairobi.
"We have been ordered out of the CID headquarters by the police who told us that Ngilu was under arrest," the minister's lawyer Paul Muite told journalists who had camped outside the police station.
"We suspect her arrest is political and we are blaming the Internal Security Minister for her arrest," said Muite.
Chaos erupted at the CID headquarters when activists who came to show solidarity with the minister defied police orders prompting their arrest.
Ngilu had protested against the arrest of a women rights activist, Anne Njogu, who was arrested along with four others for protesting against plans by the country's lawmakers to award themselves huge pay rises as a "severance package" when their term comes to an end in December.
Ngilu stormed a police station on Tuesday night where Njogu and three others were being held and freed her, despite resistance from policemen.
A senior police officer struggled in vain to block the minister's official car from leaving with Njogu, who is also the head of Center for Rights Education and Awareness.
Police arrested five leaders of the march and detained them in different police stations but later three other activists were seriously injured after a police van they were travelling in was involved in an accident.
The planned severance pay for the 222 lawmakers will cost the country more than 20 million U.S. dollars and the activists called on the lawmakers to prioritize the plight of the poor, many of whom live on a dollar a day, instead of looking for campaign funds.
The lawmakers' proposed payments come on top of annual packages of at least 140,000 dollars making them among the best-paid lawmakers in the world.
Their move has drawn condemnations from cross section of Kenyans including ministers who have since urged their colleagues to shelve the bid.
The activists said parliamentary sessions are frequently adjourned because of quorum hitch and only a handful of bills are passed each year and termed as unacceptable the legislators' plan to award themselves generous perks, noting that nearly half of Kenya's population live below the poverty line.
The arrest of Ngilu came as a Kenyan High Court Judge ordered the release of the political activists, one of whom the minister was accused of helping out of the police custody.
The main opposition party, the Orange Democratic Party of Kenya (ODM-Kenya), immediately condemned the arrest of the Health Minister, who is facing political pressure to hand over her political party to President Kibaki's allies.
"Nobody knows where she is. We expect that her life is seriously in danger and we understand that she is being forced to sign a surrender agreement for her party -- the ruling National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) to agents," said main opposition leader Raila Odinga.
He said the Health Minister might have been arrested after holding secret talks with the ODM-Kenya leadership over a possible merger with them ahead of the forthcoming elections.
"The storming of a police station is not an excuse to lock a cabinet minister in a police cell. Which government locks a cabinet minister for such a flimsy reason?" Raila told journalists.
Ngilu, one of the few politicians who rivaled Kibaki ahead of the 2002 polls before stepping down for him, is expected to play a major role in shaping the outcome of the 2007 polls but her laxity to work with the backers of Kibaki again has put her on a collision course with those in the government.
She said she was forced to intervene in the arrest of one of the activists, Anne Njogu, whom she said was assaulted by the police.
"Which law says the police should assault people? It was a violation of her (Njogu) rights," she said on Wednesday, while daring the police to arrest her.
Meanwhile, High Court Judge Onesmus Mutungi told a packed courtroom on Thursday that the arrest of the five rights activists was a violation of their constitutional rights and ordered their immediate release.
On Wednesday, police stormed the Aga Khan hospital in Nairobi where Njogu was admitted and unsuccessfully tried to discharge her but managed to rearrest her.
Justice Mutungi ruled the continued detention of the five is " illegal and a violation of their constitutional rights," saying the police exceeded the 24-hour limit for producing prisoners in court.
Source: Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article