Wandayi urges DCI to summon Waiguru over attack on Kirinyaga Woman Rep Njeri Maina

National Assembly Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi now wants the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to begin their probe into the attack on Kirinyaga Woman Representative Njeri Maina by knocking on the doors of the county Governor Anne Waiguru.

Wandayi, speaking during a Parliamentary session on Tuesday afternoon, opined that Waiguru’s alleged involvement in the chaos that saw Njeri hospitalised with injuries needs to be looked into.

This, he said, was due to claims that the perpetrators of the said attack – who reportedly arrived on scene in three Toyota Probox vehicles – were acting on instructions from the Kirinyaga County government.

He hence wants Waiguru to record a statement with the investigative agency, and face prosecution if found culpable of the offence.

“It would appear that Maina was attacked by goons who were supposedly working on behalf of the county government of Kirinyaga. We must condemn violence in all its shapes and forms; violence is violence - whether it happens in Kondele or Kerugoya,” said the Ugunja MP.

“So this atrocity which has been meted against our own colleague by the County Governor of Kirinyaga and her agents needs to be investigated very expeditiously, and stern action taken against the financiers and perpetrators of this heinous act.”

He added: “I saw the young MP in very bad shape on social media, having been attacked viciously by goons hired by the Governor. That is not acceptable. We demand that the Governor of Kirinyaga be summoned by the DCI so that she can record a statement, and if possible be taken to court.”

The issue was raised in the House by Kisii Woman Representative Dorice Donya, who alleged that her Kirinyaga counterpart was addressing congregants at a function when she was pounced on by rowdy youths.

Donya said she sought help from Deputy Sergeant-at-Arms to have Njeri airlifted to the Nairobi Hospital for further treatment, but her plea fell on deaf ears, and only an ambulance was sent instead.

“I was told that she had gone to inspect some water project which had been closed by the Governor. And the people who came were the kanjos, and they wanted to chase her away from that place. When that didn’t happen, they called for more people to come and evacuate her, in the process, she was badly injured,” narrated Donya.

Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah, on his part, stated that he had been informed that the legislator was in stable condition, further calling for a thorough probe to bring the culprits to book.

Dagoretti South MP John Kiarie went on to recount his own experience having undergone political violence in the past, intimating that the perpetrators are usually answering to someone higher up, with whom the buck of accountability should stop in the probe.

“The English said that; ‘When the debate is lost, foolish people attack violently.’ When they saw that Maina Njeri was rising, they decided to mete violence on her. There are levels of accountability; we’re talking about the people in the Probox, every act of violence that is political is a sponsored act,” he stated.

“So as we dig to find out who these people in Probox were, we also need to find out who has sponsored them, and the accountability has to go to the highest level of this sponsor.”

Bumula legislator Wamboka Nelson urged the House to summon Interior Security Cabinet Secretary Prof. Kithure Kindiki to provide more insight into the attack.