A police boss in Bondo on Tuesday appeared before a court to respond to charges of assault.
Abdikadir Yusuf, the Officer Commanding Station (OCS) at Bondo Police Station, is accused of assaulting and detaining two journalists on Monday while they were covering the arrest of a shylock at Bondo Town.
Mr Geoffrey Oguma of Namlolwe Radio and Brian Ondeng’ of the Kenya News Agency (KNA) were also rid of their belongings, including their job apparatus and identification cards.
Appearing before Principal Magistrate Moses Obiero on Tuesday afternoon, the officer who admitted to having confiscated two Media Council of Kenya (MCK) identification cards, a camera and two phones was ordered to surrender them to the court Wednesday morning.
Mr Ondeng’ narrated how Yusuf beat him up before instructing another officer to take over, after which they were locked up.
“I identified myself as a journalist and asked the officers to allow us to perform our duty but while I was fishing out my job card, the OCS punched me on the right cheek and instructed his junior to deal with us before arresting us,” he told the Nation.
Ondeng’ and Oguma were released on Sh10, 000 cash bail after the police charged them with police obstruction.
The case will be heard again on January 22, 2019.