Digital strategist Pauline Njoroge has dismissed claims that she was found in possession of narcotics during her dramatic arrest in Malindi, Kilifi County, last Saturday.
Njoroge, who is also the Jubilee Party deputy organising secretary, is alleged to have been arrested while in possession of bhang and psychotropic substances which police said were recovered inside her hotel room and a vehicle that was ferrying her and her friend Jane Nduta.
But in a lengthy statement shared on her social media pages on Thursday, Njoroge vehemently denied the claims, insisting that the bhang was planted in the rooms and the vehicle by the police, ostensibly to implicate her in crime over her criticism of the Kenya Kwanza administration.
The popular blogger also claimed that the cops maliciously labelled collagen and vitamin C found in her room and that of Nduta as psychotropic substances.
According to Njoroge, her arrest was ordered by the powers that be on Wednesday, when anti-government demonstrations kicked off in various parts of the country.
“The DCI immediately started tracking me. They finally pounced on Saturday, 22nd July at about 2pm,” Njoroge said.
The blogger claimed that their arrest was preceded by a strange call.
“On Friday evening, I had received a strange phone call. The caller had identified himself as a person working for a bank. This person claimed that he had some confidential documents that he wanted to give me in Malindi and asked me 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. 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 revealed.
They left the hotel on Saturday afternoon to go see Gedi Ruins, Hells Kitchen and the first Church in Malindi, which was set up by the Portuguese.
“When we left the hotel we found a double cabin vehicle packed outside the resort. Nduta commented that the occupants had the demeanor of police officers but our driver Emmanuel told us they were probably just neighbours. We passed the vehicle and proceeded to join the tarmac road,” Njoroge said.
They had hardly gone a kilometre before the same vehicle blocked them. They were asked to follow the vehicle to Watamu Police station where they were arrested and locked up, but not after alerting their lawyer.
“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. They then proceeded to interrogate me and Nduta in separate rooms.
“Our driver Emmanuel was outside in the vehicle as all this was going on. The officer questioning Nduta suggested she could leave but she declined and said she would wait for me. After about two hours, the officers took us back to our hotel to search our rooms. In my room, they found collagen and vitamin C supplements which were in the container I purchased them in. Those were what they labelled psychotropic substances,” she stated.
She went on: “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. In Nduta’s room, they took found her multi-vitamins, omega and collagen supplements. They also took her laptop, all her notebooks and all her reports and a novel she had carried. Her supplements were also labelled psychotropic substances.”
“When we got back to the police station, they informed us that they would also search the car. Mind you the driver had been in the car throughout this episode so if we had something to hide, by this time he would already have done it. 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 oder 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.”
She added: “It was obvious that they were thinking through what to charge us with, and trying to make anything stick.”
Njoroge in court
Njoroge, Nduta and their driver, Emanze Jilani, were arraigned at the Malindi Law Courts on Monday.
After a whole day’s wait at the court’s cells, the prosecution tabled a miscellaneous application before the court at around 6:00 pm.
In the application state counsel Vivian Kambuga sought to have the suspects held for 30 days to enable police complete investigations.
The state also sought orders to search Njoroge’s homes and other areas she has been visiting.
Kambuga further told the court that the applicant is investigating and plans to charge the suspects with offences under the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Act.
Njoroge was also accused of making false publication contrary to Section 22 (1) (b) (d) of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act no. 5 of 2018 for a post she shared on Twitter regarding police brutality during anti-government protests.
Police in an affidavit told the court Njoroge had posted and tweeted inflammatory and inciteful messages against state agencies on her social media accounts, leading to polarization of her followers locally, regionally and internationally.
The court ordered the release of the suspects on free bond pending further court directions on Wednesday.
