Journalists are generally viewed and treated differently by politicians but not Nation Media Group's veteran photojournalist Karim Rajan.
He was on Wednesday, February 9, 2022, greeted by President Uhuru in Mombasa County as he was leaving the Coast General Hospital where he unveiled a multi-million cancer treatment unit.
The president who was in the company of Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho commanded his motorcade to stop and exchanged pleasantries with the veteran journalist.
Touched beyond words by the gesture, Rajan placed his arm on his chest to acknowledge the president.
Interestingly, he also hitched a chopper ride with former President Uhuru to Lamu on several occasions.
The veteran master of lens covered various Kenyan heads of state but it's the late president Kibaki whom he praised for respecting journalists.
"Whenever he saw journalists being pushed he would caution it, wacheni wafanye kazi, wamekuja kufanya kazi," Rajan affirmed while eulogising Kibaki.
In August 2018, Rajan alongside a colleague was assaulted and arrested by police for filming the construction of a hotel that is said to have encroached into the Indian Ocean in Shanzu.
The hotel had been under construction for about a year.
The arrest of the two Karim Rajan of NTV and Laban Walloga of Daily Nation was said to have been supervised by a senior police officer.
In a video shared online, the workers at the site were seen mishandling Karim while he tried to defend himself.
They were held for over 2 hours but finally released after intervention from different parties including the human rights body Haki Africa.
