Alistair Patrick was briefly detained at the Kilimani Police Station in Nairobi before being taken to Nyandarua where the crime was committed/KEVIN GITAU
NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 23 – The pilot accused of assaulting a policewoman in Nyandarua at the weekend has been arrested.
Alistair Patrick was briefly detained at the Kilimani Police Station in Nairobi before being taken to Nyandarua where the crime was committed.
“The DCIO will interrogate him from there,” a senior detective told Capital FM News. “He has been referred there since the confrontation happened within the jurisdiction.”
The pilot declined to address any of the queries raised to him by journalists.
As he walked to a waiting police vehicle, he covered his face in a bid to hide his identity.
Police Spokesman George Kinoti assured that action that the law would take its course.
Kwae Island Development Limited which operates helicopter 5Y-DSN said it had already terminated the pilot’s services following the incident that caused uproar on social media.
READ: Pilot’s services terminated by chopper operator after cop spat
In Parliament, women MPs condemned the incident and urged authorities to take tough action against the pilot.
“All that happened is that there were curios kids who wanted to see the Deputy’s President new chopper which is three months old,” an agitated Mbita MP Millie Odhiambo said.
“What is it wrong for children to see the Deputy’s President new chopper?”
She went on to say, “if it wasn’t that I am law abiding citizen, I would have requested that the man be let free to us women… for just two minutes.”
Police acted after Deputy President William Ruto asked them to investigate the incident.
The DP said he had been made aware of the video that was widely circulated on social media.
“The Deputy President has been made aware of the unbecoming behaviour of a pilot of a helicopter he had hired to take him to Nyandarua at the weekend. The DP has asked the police to take up the matter and initiate immediate action,” the DP’s Communication Secretary David Mugonyi told Capital FM News.
READ: DP Ruto seeks probe of pilot he hired after scuffle with policewoman
He added that the Deputy President believes in the rule of law and “holds Kenya’s hardworking police officers in the highest regard.”
In the video, the pilot is seen emerging from the helicopter after a crowd of children surged towards it.
The pilot is heard shouting insults at the policewoman before he grabs her swagger stick. At some point he is seen pushing the policewoman, attracting the ire of the crowd at the grounds though no one intervened.
The policewoman remained calm.
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