Ex-Kiambu governor Ferdinand Waititu arrested

Former Kiambu County Governor Ferdinand Waititu has been arrested over alleged incitement to violence.

Mr Waititu on Monday afternoon told the Nation that police roughed him up on the Northern Bypass in Kiambu and was being ferried to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters to record a statement.

He said he suspected that the arrest had something to do with his utterances at a church service on Sunday, where he said that if Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is impeached, he should go home with his boss President William Ruto.

"As we speak I am in a police vehicle and we are heading to DCI headquarters. All indication shows it has to do with my yesterday utterances in Ruiru on matters of the Deputy President's impeachment"

The arrest comes barely a day after Mr Waititu, alongside other opposition leaders, including Wiper Party Leader Kalonzo Musyoka, were denied entry to a church in Kitengela.

The team, which also included Democratic Action Party- Kenya's boss Eugene Wamalwa, Jubilee Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni, and politician Jimmy Wanjigi, were also forced to cancel planned rallies in Mlolongo and Kitengela over safety fears.

In a statement to its members, the Wiper Party said the former Governor had been "arbitrarily arrested and unlawfully kidnapped by unknown individuals suspected to be State Security agents".

"Dr Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper Party leader) is on high-security alert and actively seeking and actively seeking information regarding Governor Waititu's whereabouts," the statement reads in part.

The Nation has also learnt that Kalonzo will be heading to the DCI headquarters to demand Waititu's release and will be accompanied by several Wiper Party MPs.

The issues Mr Kalonzo will be addressing, the Wiper Party said, will not only include demands that the arrested county boss be given access to his family, a lawyer, and a doctor but also that he be immediately released from illegal detention "unless he is charged with an internationally recognised offence".

Thus far, the DCI has not released any information regarding the charges it has against the former Kiambu County boss.