Saturday, January 19, 2008

INCASE YOU DIDN'T SEE IT

Omtatah Okoiti:

This week ,Okiya Omtatah Okoiti has been nominated as bloggers' Man-of-the-Week.

On Thursday January 17 2008, playwright, civil society and human rights activist Omtatah brought activities at Vigilance House (Kenya Police Headquarters) along Harambee Avenue to a standstill after he chained himself to the gates of police headquarters in what he called the "protest of justice" to end the merciless killings of innocent people by security agents.

Specifically, Omtatah was protesting the widely condemned TV footage that captured a police officer shooting two unarmed civilians in Kisumu. During his "protest of justice", Omtatah yelled: "Action and inaction of a police officer on duty are not supposed to be motivated by any other interest other than public interest. This was not the case in the Kisumu murder". By this time a large crowd had gathered to cheer him on. Omtatah was armed with his national ID card, a statement to the police commissioner and a catholic rosary that he held in the air as he protested the loss of innocent lives at the hands of Kenya Police. It took 5 police officers about two hours to unchain him and another 50 paramilitary GSU officers to frog-march him to the KICC police station. He is a truly a Kenyan Hero by bloggers' standard.

Mr. Omtatah being unchained by police officers
Civil rights activist Okoiti Omtatah is arrested after he chained himself to the Police headquarters’ fence to protest the Government’s use of brutal force to stop ODM demonstrations. Photo by:NATION CORRESPONDENT



Police officers frog matching a protester, civil society activist Mr Okiya Omtatah, on Thursday. Other Leaders also condemned police brutality in quelling the protests.




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