A traffic police officer was on Friday, October 27, involved in a heated altercation with a motorist on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway.
In a video that activist Boniface Mwangi first shared, the police officer was captured sitting provocatively in a motorist's car while the argument escalated.
The frustrated driver could be heard adamantly pleading with the officer, identified as Mwaniki, to step out of the driver's seat and, at one time, attempted to pull him out of the car.
The cause of the altercation was yet to be established. However, according to a passenger who recorded the video, the driver stopped along Mombasa Road and left the key in the ignition.
Mwaniki, a police officer from Embakasi Police Station, entered the vehicle and started driving it, forcing the driver to intervene and forcefully eject him.
"The driver saw that and tried removing him, and that's when this scuffle started. Mwaniki called for backup. The driver, the man on the video arguing with Mwaniki, ran away after more police officers arrived. I was assaulted for recording this video, arrested and taken to Embakasi Police Station. Mwaniki said that the driver and l assaulted him and stole Ksh 10,000 shillings and that he will charge me with robbery with violence.
"The driver who ran away came to the police station, and that's when l was released. I hope the driver is safe because Mwaniki vowed to teach him a painful lesson for challenging him," the passenger, who shared the story with Mwangi, alleged.
In the video, the police officer demanded that the driver express his grievances while standing outside the car, further warning him not to approach the car.
“What do you want Mwaniki,” the driver wondered.
The police officer also demanded that the passenger who was recording the vehicle hand over the phone before he could release the car to them.
