A lady who recorded traffic officers manhandling a passenger at a police checkpoint in Kasarani area was arrested on Tuesday afternoon.
According to her Facebook post, Njeri wa Muthoni, the lady who made the recording, was allegedly being held at Kasarani Police Station.
Her video which shows police officers roughing up a female passenger caused a massive uproar on social media platforms for the better part of Tuesday.
In the viral video, five police officers are seen trying to forcefully get a lady who was in the front seat of a bus to alight.
Njeri took out her phone and started recording the incident.
However, one of the officers spotted her recording and threatened to arrest her. In the video, she can be heard telling the cops to go ahead and arrest her.
“Nishike, nishike sawa, nishikeni (arrest me, arrest me ok, arrest me)," she's heard saying.
Njeri then goes on to ask other passengers not to alight from the bus as they were well within their rights.
“Msikubali kushuka (don’t alight)," she asserted.
The Kenyan online community has since started lobbying under #ReleaseNjeri in a bid to have her freed, with Embakasi East MP Babu Owino threatening to storm the police precinct in solidarity with her.
The Independent Oversight Policing Authority, (IPOA) has come out in condemnation of her arrest, with their spokesperson, Dennis Okech stating that they have raised the matter with the Kasarani precinct.
He went on to assure Kenyans that they have asked that Njeri is released immediately.
Sophia Njeri alias Njeri wa Muthoni has since been charged with Obstruction in the execution of duty according to a charge sheet created at the Kasarani Police station.
The charge sheet also indicates that she was released on a Ksh 10,000 cash bail, and ordered to appear at the Makadara law courts on 8th February 2019.
