Former Lagdera Member of Parliament Farah Maalim says that politicians should demonstrate courage when facing off with the police.
Speaking on Tuesday morning, the leader faulted politician who have been taking off during confrontations with the law enforcers during protests and other similar clashes.
He has called for bravery among politicians, even in the face of police brutality, instances normally characterized with lobbing of teargas canisters and clobbering.
Maalim called upon them, specifically MPs, to face the police and endure the clobbering during demonstrations as a show of their steady stand against despotic regimes.
He termed it a bad sign for MPs to run away from teargas, suggesting that they should stick around and take it if thrown at them.
"It’s not a good sign for you to run as an MP or as a leader from tear gas. You should stay and eat it," he claimed.
This is as he explained how he repeatedly found himself in face-offs with the police during the push for the second liberation in the 90s, among fellow leaders involved in the push for multiparty democracy.
"As politicians, we show a very bad example to the country and we will demonstrate that we are buckling under the power of that despotic state that time, every time we take to our heels when we are teargassed. I told them let's be clobbered and teargassed but let's stay there," he said.
Maalim has also served as the National Assembly Deputy Speaker and is currently the Wiper Democratic Movement (WDM) Deputy Party Leader.
He unsuccessfully vied for the Garissa Township MP slot in the 2017 poll and lost to National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale.