NMG protests the arrest of senior reporter Kipchumba Some

Nation Media Group has protested the arrest of senior investigative writer Kipchumba Some Tuesday.

Mr Some was arrested by three uniformed officers outside a restaurant on Koinange Street at 2pm and taken to Central Police Station.

He was meeting a news source who apparently set him up.

The reporter was taken to the station, but released shortly after without any formal record of his arrest following the intervention of Sunday Nation Editor Mike Owuor and company head of legal team Sekou Owino.

COMPLAINT

There was no formal complaint recorded, raising more questions about the arrest.

Mr Some had been making enquiries for a story about two brothers from a wealthy family recently arrested on suspicion of being involved in banking fraud and bribing Directorate of Criminal Investigations detectives.

Mr Samatar Yusuf and Mr Abdikarim Yusuf Abdi are sons of a tycoon.

Mr Abdi and his cousin Ahmed Mohammed Hassan surrendered to police last week when their names appeared in a list of 134 people being sought for involvement in electronic bank heists.

The pair, with two other accomplices, reportedly conspired to alter customer prepaid card balances and data at the National Bank of Kenya, leading to a loss of more than Sh135.4 million.

Mr Yusuf was arrested by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission officers as he reportedly attempted to secure the release of the two brothers by bribing a DCI officer.

Detectives are also looking into how he acquired Somali, Kenyan and American passports.

At on Tuesday afternoon, the journalist called Mr Abdinajibi Abdi Yusuf, a brother of the two suspects, requesting him to arrange an interview with their father.

Mr Yusuf initially declined the invitation, saying the family should be left alone.

PROCEDURE

He later agreed to meet Mr Some at a restaurant on Koinange Street in the city centre.

However, the would-be source appeared to have made arrangements with police officers to have the journalist arrested and frog-marched to the Central Station.

Mr Some was taken to Central OCS Simon Kerich.

Curiously, Mr Yusuf did not file a complaint as per standard procedure.

His only complaint was the “unfair” reporting of his brothers’ tribulations in the February 5 issue of the Business Daily.

“You Nation people have been given money to destroy the good name of my family,” he said before the OCS.

“Why are you looking for my father if my brothers are in trouble?”

Mr Kerich freed Mr Some shortly after.

Nairobi Central OCPD Robinson Thuku did not respond to our repeated requests for comment.

Kenya Union of Journalists Secretary-General Erick Oduor said the arrest was an affront to press freedom.