NAIROBI, Kenya, May 16 – Police have dismissed Gichugu MP Martha Karua’s life threat claims and accused her of using police as a ‘diversionary tactic to mask her political miseries.
Police Spokesman Eric Kiraithe in a statement said police were dismayed by Ms Karua’s allegations that they were behind propaganda of ‘perceived threats’ to her life and her family terming them ‘false and irresponsible utterances’.
“The fact of the matter is that security was deployed to her rural home to protect her from her own constituents who are allegedly incensed by her persistent support of Mungiki, a criminal gang that murdered scores of people in the area recently,” he said in his statement.
While giving a personal statement in Parliament last Wednesday Ms Karua had said that reports that her life was in danger were untrue. She said the reports appearing in sections of the media that day claiming that angry youths in the area were planning to attack her rural home were released by the police in the area with sinister motives.
Ms Karua claimed that she was in good relations with her constituents and that the reports were meant to derail her political ambitions and defence against ‘extrajudicial killings’ by the police.
Ms Karua’s confrontation with the government stemmed from public condemnation of the police accusing them of branding youths in central Kenya as Mungiki and executing them without trial.
The former Justice Minister has also accused police of supporting vigilante groups who last month executed 14 Mungiki suspects in separate incidents in Kirinyaga district.
Following the incident suspected Mungiki youths attacked a village in Mathira and slaughtered a total of 29 people in one night.
Mr Kiraithe however refuted these accusations.
“The police will not be used as a scapegoat by politicians experiencing political misery in their constituencies. Politicians seeking popularity are advised to campaign at home rather than seeking to reinvent themselves through false accusations against the police,” the Police Spokesman added.
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