I'd gone for an interview, says man battered by police during Cord demo

The man who was filmed on Monday being viciously beaten by police has said he was not part of the Cord demonstrations against the electoral agency's commissioners.

Mr Boniface Manono, a resident of Gachie in Kiambu County, said he had come to the city for an interview with a taxi company at Mirage Plaza.

After the alleged interview with Uber, Mr Manono said he headed to the bus stage when a teargas canister was hurled at him and he decided to change direction not knowing police officers were ahead.

He said the officers then chased after him and one of them tripped him.

"Several police officers beat me up with batons and left me there. I was helpless," said Mr Manono.

He said journalists (one from NTV Kenya) picked him up and moved him to the veranda of a building he does not know its name.

"They (journalists) also went away to continue with their job," Mr Manono added.

He says he went to Central Park after normalcy returned and called his uncle with a borrowed phone. His uncle took him to his house in Kibera where has since been nursing his injuries.

“I had lost my phone, my documents and my phone and I cannot tell exactly at what point they got lost,” he said.

Mr Manono says his uncle took him to his house in Makina in Kibera as he could not seek immediate medical attention because he had no money.

“Today morning (Tuesday), MP, Junet Mohammed came and took me from my house and I have managed to go to hospital,” Mr Manono said.

Images of a police officer beating him with a baton as he lay prostrate on the ground went viral, with Kenyans saying that the police used excessive force against the demonstrators.

Several Human Rights organizations and civil society have also condemned the violence saying the police used abusive force.