Politicians and activists in Kisumu on Monday condemned the arrest of Orange Democratic Movement communications director Phillip Etale in Malindi.
Mr Etale was arrested by police who raided his hotel room in the wee hours of Monday morning.
Etale said on phone he was in his room in Malindi town at about 1am when about 20 officers knocked the door to his room and picked him up before driving to Kilif.
This has however, not gone down well with many political leaders in Kisumu.
An activist and a renowned accountant in Kisumu Hesbone Omollo said the arrest of Etale in the wee hours smacks of high handedness by our security agencies and reminds the country of what happened in Uganda during the February 18 election.
“Especially if reasons for the arrest are not being disclosed, it is easy to read intimidation in all this arrest issue,” said Mr Omollo.
Seth Odongo, a blogger and an ODM enthusiast stated that the only plausible reason ‘Jubilee’ arrested Etale is because they thought information from Malindi would be disseminated exclusively by the Director of Communications.
“They overlooked, to their disadvantage, that under Etale are equally stealth media gurus revolutionising how election processes are disseminated in post-traditional media,” said Odongo.
It is reported that the Jubilee officials in Malindi has accused Etale of trying to hack the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission system.
The claims were refuted by Cord officials deployed by the coalition to oversee the by-election.
Cord has however protested the move and termed the claims fake and part of state’s plan to intimidate their supporters in Malindi.
Etale was late on Monday freed.