Sakaja blasts police for ‘targeting’ comrade Babu Owino, as MP is released from custody
In a rare show solidarity between political players from the feuding Jubilee Party and opposition outfit Nasa, Nairobi senator Johnson Sakaja has harshly criticized the National Police Service for the latest tribulations of Embakasi East Member of Parliament Babu Owino.
Speaking on Sunday, shortly after Owino was released on a free bond from Parklands Police Station, where he has been held since Friday, Sakaja told off elements within the police service who are being used to settle political scores.
“Whoever is trying to use the criminal justice system to score whichever goals, should stop. And if you are in the police force and you think by doing this you are helping Jubilee, you are not,” Sakaja said while flanked by Owino.
The senator also expressed his sympathy to Owino for his brief incarceration.
“Babu pole sana together with your bodyguard. As soon as I got the information from one of your people I was able to dash over here,” he told Owino.
‘MY COMRADE’
The first time MP was arrested on Friday at Parliament buildings by plainclothes police officers and driven to Parklands Police Station after a video clip emerged showing a man believed to be the legislator and his aides roughing up a parking attendant at Fotris Plaza in Nairobi
When the video went public on social media, the MP dismissed it saying he was in Mombasa at the time the incident is said to have happened.
In a lighthearted moment, Sakaja also dismissed earlier remarks from Suna East MP Junet Mohamed that he (Sakaja) only came to the police station to demand Owino’s release because his Jubilee Party is behind the MP’s tribulations.
“Babu has explained our relationship. I was his chairman here, in Sonu, at the University. He’s my comrade, we are friends,” Sakaja said.
On Saturday afternoon, Nasa co-principals Raila Odinga and Moses Wetangula camped at the police station for almost two hours but still failed to secure Owino’s freedom.
The MP will appear in court on Monday.