Pauline Njoroge Breaks Silence After Arrest, Reveals Fresh Details

Azimio Blogger Pauline Njoroge has broken her silence following her arrest on Saturday, July 22 in Watamu, Kilifi County.

Also arrested on the said date are her friend Jane Mwangi Nduta and the driver of a vehicle they boarded in their tour, Emanze Jilani.

In a lengthy post she shared on her Facebook Page, Njoroge has vowed to keep the fire burning saying she will not be silenced by the arrest.

She said the ordeal has only made her strong and will not bow down to intimidation to stop her noble course of criticising the government.

"This is my message to them: I shall not be silenced! By detaining us, you only strengthened our resolve. We will not sit and watch as some fellows try to turn the clock back, recreating our country's dark past," She said.

"Patriots of that generation sacrificed sweat and blood to liberate our country from dictatorship, so that we may have the democratic space we currently enjoy. Because of our present circumstances, the responsibility to guard jealousy and our hard-earned freedom has fallen upon our generation. We must bear that responsibility bravely."

According to Njoroge, the plan to arrest her began on Friday after she received a call from a man who identified himself as a bank official.

"This person claimed that he had some confidential documents that he wanted to give me in Malindi and asked me to go alone. This startled me because I had not posted anywhere that I was on the Coast. So how did he know? Anyway, I decided to ignore it," she said.

She adds that her friend Nduta would later receive a call on Saturday morning from a person who wanted to know whether she does tours in Mombasa.

Njoroge said she discussed the calls with Nduta after which they agreed to ignore them.

"We left the hotel that afternoon to go see Gedi Ruins, Hells Kitchen and the first Church in Malindi, which was set up by the Portuguese. When we left the hotel we found a double cabin vehicle packed outside the resort," she narrated.

"Nduta commented that the occupants had the demeanour of police officers but our driver Emmanuel told us they were probably just neighbours. We passed the vehicle and proceeded to join the tarmac road. We had hardly gone a kilometre before the very same vehicle blocked us on the road and asked us to follow them to Watamu Police Station."

Njoroge has also clarified that substances found in their houses were not narcotic drugs.

"After about two hours of arrest, the officers took us back to our hotel to search our rooms. In my room, they found collagen and vitamin C supplements which were in the container I purchased them in. Those were what they labelled psychotropic substances," she narrated.

"They finished the search in my room and we began to take inventory of the items they had taken, which now included my laptop. As we were doing this, one officer came carrying a roll of bangi and said that she had found it behind the TV."

According to Njoroge, the bhang issue led to Nduta and the officer engaging in a back-and-forth.

She says that was the first time in her life that she was seeing a roll of bhang.

"In Nduta's room, they took found her multi-vitamins, omega and collagen supplements. They also took her laptop, all her notebooks and all her reports and a novel she had carried. Her supplements were also labelled psychotropic substances," Njoroge Narrated.

"When we got back to the police station, they informed us that they would also search the car. Mind you the driver had been in the car throughout this episode so if we had something to hide, by this time he would already have done it. Interestingly, as soon as the officers started searching, 2 rolls of bangi appeared out of nowhere on one of the seats."

An earlier police report indicate that the girls were found with suspected narcotic drugs and that they were to be charged with that.

They were however not charged on that angle when they were arraigned on Monday. They were released unconditionally.