Woman who stormed Ministry of Health offices arrested while in hospital

Grace Njoki, one of the women who stormed Health Cabinet Secretary Dr. Deborah Barasa's press briefing at Afya House last week, has been arrested for causing disturbance.

Njoki, who is being held at Capitol Hill Police Station, formerly Nairobi Area, was arrested while she sought medical services at a hospital in Eastleigh.

The 61-year-old woman’s son George Mulei had earlier sent out an alert claiming his mother was abducted while applying for knee surgery at the Ladnan Hospital.

“During the application she called me while frantically shouting that individuals identifying themselves as DCI officers had ‘come for her.’ I immediately rushed to Ladnan Hospital, but upon arrival, we were informed that she has already been ‘taken.’ We do not know her current whereabouts,” George stated in his alert to newsrooms.

Speaking in a subsequent interview with Citizen TV, he disclosed that his mother has pressing medical issues that are likely to spiral with the trauma of her unprecedented arrest and subsequent mistreatment by police officers.

“My mum is hypertensive, she’s diabetic and she has a heart condition. So basically, even the trauma this event is having on her right now, I don’t even know her state. I just want my mum safe and released, and for us to be told the charges because what normally happens is that she needs to have her day in court…but the way they manhandled her, because we have seen footage, and we really thank Ladnan Hospital for also helping us because they really tried to intervene but these people were really violent,” George said.

The family lawyer Johnston Daniel Junior, on his part, stated that police officers have since forced Njoki to write statements whose contents he is still unaware of under duress.

The advocate noted that Njoki is supposed to be charged with creating disturbance as well as resisting arrest, adding that she has been denied cash bail and only her husband has been allowed into the poluice station so far.

He however dismissed the charges saying Njoki’s actions at Afya House were purely those of a concerned citizen visiting public government offices in accordance with her rights.

“The son received a phone call from her at around 5pm from police officers who were here pretending that they’re here to have a conversation with her, and then they later proceeded to arrest her. They refused to identify themselves, what charges they were bringing against her, or to wait for her advocate to be on ground. They have consistently pushed her to write statements whose contents we do not know. We disavow anything that they portend she has stated thus far,” he stated.

“On top of that, this is a lady who was coming here to schedule an operation on her leg tomorrow. She was having a conversation with her doctor today to confirm the same.  It is beyond humanity to think that a contingent of 12 to 15 officers (to arrest her) over charges which would not amount to six months. They have not attempted to call her to present herself and she has refused.”

Njoki was among two women who on Wednesday last week stormed the Ministry of Health offices to lament the lack of operationalization of the Social Health Authority (SHA).

They decried frustrations with the newly rolled out health cover, which they insisted was not working.

They also fulminated against how they had wandered around the hospitals’ offices and even been forced to visit SHA offices, in vain.