Backlash after political strategist Rita Oyier supports arrest of 'SHA Lioness' Grace Njoki

While taking to her X account, Oyier repeatedly reacted to several tweets condemning Mulei's arrest, sharing her own opinion and appearing to suggest that Mulei deserved to be arrested for being a public nuisance and for disturbing the peace of other patients.

"You cannot cause disturbance in a hospital. That's simple common sense. You go try do it yourself. Her rights do not supersede the rights of other patients either in Kenyatta or Eastleigh," she tweeted. 

Appearing to be obviously ignorant of where Mulei first brought her complaints, Oyier kept up with her tweetstorm, replying to yet another tweet: "You cannot cause disturbance in a hospital. That's simple common sense. You go try do it yourself!"

Many who replied to her and called her to order reminded her that Grace Njoki did not, in fact, cause a ruckus in a hospital - she, instead, did it at Afya House, where the Ministry of Health is domiciled and right in a boardroom where the Health Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa was holding a press briefing.

Popular lawyer Abu Iman replied, "Except, it was a board room, and she didn't cause a disturbance. She just said that people are suffering because SHIF isn't working. She didn't impede the treatment of patients or interfere with doctors working. Don't defend the indefensible."

Someone else replied, "You claim to be a 'Geopolitical Pan-African Nationalist' and in your bio, you've also indicated "Women for Women". How then are you, a woman, coming out to openly support such a reckless arrest of a sick, old woman? Grace has been arrested for defending the rights of sick women. Who between her and you should use the phrase, "Women for Women?"

On her part, Jemimah Kagendo wrote, "I fail to understand how you'd see it this way while she was advocating for other patients' concerns. I hope you do change you way of reasoning because fighting for an oppressive regime is not it."

Yet another disappointed Kenyan blasted Oyier for supporting the police actions when the government could have easily used the opportunity to collect real feedback from an actual victim and devise ways to improve the program and settle the complaints.

"She sought answers about why SHA wasn’t functioning effectively, " she wrote. "It was a space where SHA should have received the attention it deserved especially since she wasn't the only one feeling frustrated about the lack of progress in improving health care."

"However, instead of receiving the answers she needed, her concerns were dismissed as threats. The police, who should have been safeguarding citizens against crime and injustice, treated her as if she posed a security risk."

She added, "They felt threatened, focusing more on preserving their reputation and the image of SHA than on addressing the real issues at hand."

After her dramatic arrest at Ladnan Hospital in Eastleigh, Mulei was freed this morning on a Ksh.10,000 police bail.

According to her lawyer Ndegwa Njiru, the police said they were unsure what charges to press against her.