'I was manhandled, taken to three locations,' Grace Njoki speaks out after dramatic arrest

Grace Njoki, one of the women who brazenly interrupted Health Cabinet Secretary Dr. Deborah Barasa's press briefing at Afya House last week, has shared details about the events leading up to her dramatic arrest by police officers at a city hospital on Thursday.

Speaking to journalists at Capitol Hill Police Station in Nairobi on Friday, shortly after being released on a Ksh.10,000 police cash bail, Njoki recalled going to Ladnan Hospital in Pangani to collect her test results, as she suffers from a heart condition.

It was there that she noticed a familiar security operative she had encountered when she interrupted Barasa’s briefing, which instantly caused her to panic and suspect that she was being followed.

“I had gone to seek treatment at Ladnan Hospital and I saw a security person who I had seen earlier and I even asked him what he was doing there. I can identify him even when I see him,” Njoki said.

“So, I sensed I was being followed.”

When Njoki asked the state operative what he was doing there, he claimed he was visiting a patient and then inquired why she was there as well.

“He appeared from nowhere and greeted me so I told him I had come to collect my results because they asked me what I was doing at the hospital. He claimed he had a patient,” she recounted.

Minutes later, Njoki continued, the officer returned with a man and a woman, presumably his colleagues and demanded that she leave the hospital with them.

“Less than 10 minutes later, he came back with a lady and man and told me they wanted to take me somewhere. I asked what I had done and where they were taking me but they refused to tell me

“They also refused to tell me why I was getting arrested, claiming that I was not being placed under arrest,” she said.

The officers told Njoki that they would forcibly apprehend her if she did not comply with their request.

“They then told me upende, usipende, utaenda na utatoka hapa. So, I felt threatened and I asked the lady why they were taking me but she did not clarify,” she said.

Njoki managed to call her husband and son, informing them of her predicament before her phone was confiscated by the bullish police officers.

“After that, I called my son and told him what was happening and I called my husband. They (police) then grabbed my phone and took it from me and since then I have not seen it,” she said.

Ladnan Hospital staff attempted to intervene but were overpowered by reinforcements perceived by Njoki to be from Pangani Police Station, who forcibly removed her from the hospital’s grounds.

“There were over 20 officers; they manhandled me. I was carried by force out of the hospital and I was dragged, pinched, bullied and all through they never told me where they were taking me or why they were arresting me,” she said.

“They then insisted I write a statement. I asked what the statement was about but nobody told me anything. I felt threatened; I have a heart condition so I kept telling them to let me talk to my lawyer and son but they refused.”

Njoki added that she was then driven around town, taken to three different locations, before finally ending up at Capitol Hill Police Station.

“I felt I was being abducted because that was my fear. I do not know why I was arrested to me it was not an arrest, it was an abduction. Could they not wait for me to finish my treatment?” Njoki posed.

“They know where I stay, they even told me they know my house…could they not reach out and call me because they had my number? It is very unfair to manhandle me while seeking treatment.”

Further, Njoki passionately explained that her actions to storm Barasa’s briefing stemmed from her desire to fight for patients’ rights, since the Social Health Authority is inefficient and putting the health of Kenyans in jeopardy.

“I just came to fight for the patients who have no voice. I am not a political leader. I am not looking for anything; I’m a nurse and all those people who know me, I have always fought for patients,” she said.

“That’s all I want. Give patients their rights, let them get proper treatment, stop taking the money and not giving treatment because that is what is happening.”