NAIROBI, Kenya Apr 18 – Central Imenti MP Gitobu Imanyara has told Parliament that he fears for his life after he was allegedly accosted by four men as he drove to his home near State House, Nairobi on Tuesday night.
He told a shocked House that the gunmen whom he believed to be police officers forced him to pledge support to a presidential aspirant from Central Kenya during the incident that happened between 11.30pm and midnight on State House Crescent.
“The men asked me to kneel down facing Mt Kenya and chant ‘Uhuru Tuko Pamoja’ three times, with a machete placed at the back of my head,“ he told Parliament.
He claims the thugs also warned him against attending the outlawed Limuru 2B meeting on Wednesday that had been organised by former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga, to counter recent gatherings by the GEMA and KAMATUSA groups.
“They also told me to stop accompanying the Prime Minister (Raila Odinga) when he goes to Meru and that if I do not heed their instructions they will cut off my head and those of my sons and take them to my wife,” he claimed.
“I will not be party to any attempts to compartmentalize me or some parts of this region to think in a certain way,” Imanyara told Parliament when he rose to get a ministerial statement from the Internal Security Minister.
“I am willing to die but (no one) will direct me on who to support politically or regionally. Security being a major consumer issue, one hopes that Police will investigate the matter as soon as the MP reports the complaint,” he said.
Internal Security Assistant Minister Orwa Ojodeh said the incident was under police investigation.
“We don’t take such matters lightly and I promise you that we are investigating the issue,” he said.
He, however, came under fire over the security of MPs after he was reprimanded by backbenchers for treating the matter “casually”.
“This is one minister who has in the past made a habit of defending the indefensible,” said Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba.
He was irked by Ojodeh’s remarks that he had in the past told MPs to “use bodyguards.”
Imanyara further stunned the House when he claimed that the police had in the past provided him “an insane bodyguard” who has since been admitted to the Mathari Mental Hospital.
“Sometimes I wonder if the police are behind these attacks. They always make a mockery of such reports,” Nominated MP Millie Odhiambo said in contribution to the debate.
“Before Tom Mboya died [he was shot dead outside a pharmacy in Nairobi], his own bodyguard had attempted to kill him,” Gwassi MP John Mbadi added.
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