Veteran Journalist Macharia Gaitho has narrated how he had a rough encounter with the late Minister Nicholas Biwott's security team who beat him mercilessly for taking pictures of one of his addresses.
According to Gaitho, the incident took place in April 1991 during a rally in Kerio Valley where Biwott was to address frustrated residents who had lost their land following the establishment of the Fluorspar Mining Company.
Working for The Weekly Review at the time, Gaitho - accompanied by a colleague - travelled to Kerio Valley to follow up on reports that the residents had arranged a demonstration against the former powerful Minister.
At the time, Biwott had just acquired the Company from the government and had promised to resettle the residents who had been displaced from other Government farms that had also come into his possession.
During the address, the irate residents jeered at Biwott as he tried to talk to them. Meanwhile, Gaitho and his colleague were taking notes and pictures of the hostility.
Biwott’s security men spotted them and frog matched them to a nearby settlement where they were locked in a house and thoroughly beaten.
The journalists lost their notebooks and their camera was smashed, after which they were allowed to leave under strict conditions never to return to the area.
When Gaitho got back to Nairobi and narrated to his boss, Hillary Ng'weno what had happened, the latter insisted on reporting the incident to the police.
What followed was numerous referrals to senior officers as no officer wanted to record their statement at the mention of Biwott's name who was a powerful individual in the Moi government.
Eventually, the OCS took their statement and the matter escalated to a point where the journalists had to go to the CID headquarters to record their statement again.
After investigations, it emerged that the security team that had roughed up Gaitho and his colleague comprised of a GSU officer, an Administration Police officer, and a local person.
Thereafter, Gaitho was called to Kilimani police station to identify the assailants in a lineup.
Justice, however, never prevailed as the GSU officer was transferred and no follow up was ever done.
