Police cells in Nairobi can easily pass for torture rooms in a horror movie. No beds. No sheets. Just a few torn blankets. Smell of sweat, urine and human waste compete for your nostrils. Mosquitoes and kunguni will keep you company for the night. Weaklings, ‘softies’ and mababi (Cerelac babies) are game for hooligans. You have no rights once you remove your belt and one shoe to enter the slammer.
If a country’s police cells and jails are a measure of civilisation and development, we’re really in the Third World. Just why common wisdom dictates you try talk your way out when arrested by coppers. Never issue what will turn out to be empty threats that expose you as someone who chose broke, faceless ancestors – realisation that your part of hoi polloi will result in you being a guest of the state-as a lesson. Experience at the police cell will go something like this.
Migori governor Okoth Obado will spend the weekend in police custody as the probe into Sharon Otieno’s murder continues.
Police said the governor will be charged in a Nairobi court on Monday as a person of interest in the Rongo university student’s killing.
According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Obado will spend Friday night at Gigiri Police Station.
He was grilled for hours by officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations at the Kiambu headquarters.
The county chief has denied any link to the murder of the 26-year-old student but admitted they were lovers.
Last week, Obado told the police in Kisumu that he too was interested in knowing Sharon’s killers.