Nakuru Kameme TV reporter who was shot four times during the anti-government protests in July is fearing for her life following threats from unknown people.
The reporter, Catherine Wanjeri said she has been getting intimidating phone calls from unknown people posing as informers in the ongoing investigation into her shooting.
The journalist said she was initially receiving the calls but later stopped picking any number that was not on her contacts list after the callers became incessant and their messages threatening.
She said one of the callers who claimed to know the Police officer who shot her and his residence warned her against telling anyone that he had called her.
Speaking at the Nakuru Central Police Station where she reported the threats, Wanjeri said there were people monitoring her movements and following her whenever she travelled to Nakuru for treatment.
“At one point, a caller asked me to meet him in order to give me information about the person who shot me and I simply told him to share the details with the police as it could help with investigations,” she said.
Wanjeri was shot four times in the thigh on July 16 as she covered the anti-government protests by Gen-Z in Nakuru Central Business District.
She was admitted at the Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital Annex to have the four rubber bullets that were lodged in the thigh removed.
A complaint against police brutality on journalists was launched and later referred to Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) but the culprit in the matter have not been arrested close to two months later.
Yesterday, Wanjeri said she felt that some people were intimidating her in a bid to silence her and abandon the matter.
“I have contemplated abandoning the matter because I am afraid for myself and my family but the strength and support from Nakuru Journalists’ Association (NJA) and fellow journalists countrywide has kept me going” she said.
Wanjeri intimated that at one time, she had to share her fears with her doctor at PGH Annex when she realised there was always followed her to the facility, parked at the parking lot during her stay and would only leave when she left.
Nakuru Journalists’ chairperson, Joseph Openda wondered why the officer who shot Wanjeri was yet to be arrested and charged with the offence close to two months later.
“The officer is working, most probably armed and roaming the street thus further endangering the life of the affected journalist and witnesses in the matter,” he said.
Openda said IPOA claimed that it was waiting for a second report from the Directorate of Criminal Investigation after which it would hand over the case to Directorate of Public Prosecution for further action.
Wanjeri, who was wearing a jacket clearly labelled press while covering the protests, recounted the moments before she was shot.
“We were journalists from different media houses standing when I was shot…my mum had called me 7 minutes before I was shot to tell me that I should be careful,” she recalled.
Wanjeri gave an account of Tuesday’s protests in Nakuru and claimed that police officers had singled her out, as this was not an isolated case.
“Nobody would convince me that I was not a target, I had been hit with a tear gas canister but I did not report, I did not even escalate it, I showed my colleagues the scar on the same leg that I was shot at,” narrated the journalist.
Wanjeri was caught moments before being shot giving toothpaste to a police officer sitting in a police vehicle, believing it would help her cope with the effects of tear gas.
What followed was an officer in a police vehicle who shot at her the bullets struck her in the thigh.
