Meru County Governor Kawira Mwangaza was involved in a standoff with police in Ruiga Village, Imenti Central Constituency, on Wednesday afternoon.
This comes after police were called to a homestead where she was allegedly donating a cow as part of her ‘Okolea’ outreach programme, which was recently banned by Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki.
According to her neighbours, Kawira confronted the police and demanded to know who had sent them to the homestead before getting into the police Landcruiser.
While the Governor insists she is under arrest, police on the ground believe she staged the incident by quickly getting into the police vehicle to fake an arrest.
The Governor later took to Facebook, posting images of herself exiting the police vehicle and declaring that she had been “set free.”
“Finally. Am free. I thank God am safe,” Governor Kawira captioned the images.
Earlier, Governor Mwangaza confirmed her arrest in a statement released through her social media after her arrest.
She however faulted the authorities for failing to proceed with the next steps of the legal processes after her arrest.
According to the Governor, the police officers have ‘detained’ her in the police car.
“I am under arrest. The police officers hawataki kunipeleka Station kufungua mastaka. Have been held in this police car for two hours now,” she said.
“It is disheartening to witness needless curtailment of development efforts meant to help vulnerable in our community such intimidation should not be allowed to obstruct progress in the Meru community,” she added.
The county boss said the law enforcers were sent to interfere with the implementation of the program.
