Police respond to arrest of controversial blogger Mildred Atieno

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Nairobi police boss Philip Ndolo has issued a statement explaining the reasons behind today's  forceful arrest of blogger and activist Mildred Atieno.

The police say that they've arrested Mildred in connection to Friday's incident where she recorded herself on video asking a uniformed police officer to leave her car on grounds that no law enforcement officer is allowed to enter a motorist’s car to make an arrest. "After managing to throw the officer out of her car, she started inciting the public against the law officer. Just, what if the crowd had lynched the police officer, what would we be talking about now?" asked the police boss.

"The said-offence is not the only wrong-doing we have arrested Owiso for. She has several other cases in different police stations that we are following up on. Many a times, she has managed to escape arrest. Yesterday’s offence was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The police officers identified themselves and asked the suspect to open her door so that they could effect an arrest, but the suspect refused to allow the officers in. She locked her door from the inside, making it difficult for the arrest to be made. Honestly, what would you do if you are a law enforcement officer, and a suspect refuses to let you arrest her over alleged crime?"

The police boss says that the officers assigned to arrest her followed the lawful procedure. "The police identified themselves, they revealed why they were doing at the suspect’s premises, three: asked her to surrender, four: she refused, then the police used any means possible to effect the arrest. That is what we did, and use of teargas to smoke out an uncooperative suspect is not illegal in any way."