Habil Onyango, a journalist at The People Daily, has narrated how he was abducted and assaulted after publishing a news article exposing a Homa Bay County official's misconduct.
Speaking to the media on Monday, Onyango relayed that his troubles began when he exposed an irregular hiring scheme at the County Government Public Service.
After writing the story, he remembers being abducted, allegedly by hired goons who wanted him to retract the story and issue a public apology, claiming that the employee mentioned was not involved in the scheme.
"They are being given fake letters from the county government's public service board and the county secretary," Onyango relayed. "The story was published in The People Daily on Friday, but I did not know that someone who was mentioned in this story was around."
"They ordered me to make an apology immediately. To write a story apologising that the lady was not involved in the case, but I told them that such a story cannot run immediately."
Onyango was joined by other members of the fourth estate in Homa Bay County and called on the relevant agencies to speed up investigations into the matter and hold those responsible accountable.
A representative from the Kenya Union of Journalists in the county also called for better protection of journalists carrying out their duties in the county.
"We really want to appeal to the security agencies to ensure that these known goons are apprehended and prosecuted, and also, let's ensure that the lives of journalists in Homa Bay are really protected," said a union representative. "The Constitution of the Republic of Kenya is very clear on the responsibilities and the role of the media, and we will not be cowed."
Another one made a plea to the County Governor, Gladys Wanga, to ensure that the employee in question also undergo the necessary consequences for the involvement in the unlawful hiring scheme.
"We want to ask Her Excellency the Governor to rein in this terror. The employee in question is somebody known to us, and we want to demand that if we can hire goons to attack one Habil Onyango, then an action must be taken against her by Her Excellency the Governor," the union representative demanded.
This is not the first time the county has been plagued with irregular hiring claims, as a few years ago, the county was in the news for thousands of ghost workers.
In 2019, an audit of the county payroll and personnel census audit report revealed that the devolved unit had more than 1,780 ghost workers.
