Mediamax journalist Catherine Wanjeri Kariuki recounted the moments preceding an incident where she was shot four times at close range while covering protests in Nakuru.
Speaking to a local TV station, Wanjeri, who is currently recuperating at a hospital in Nakuru County said this was not the first time police officers were targeting her.
“This is not the first time I have been targeted. I had been hit by a teargas canister but I did not report nor escalate the matter,” Wanjeri remarked.
Just seven minutes before the ugly incident where Wanjeri was shot four times with three bullets getting lodged in her thigh, the journalist says her mother had called and told her to take care.
Wanjeri helps policewoman
At some point, the Kameme TV journalist was seen offering a female police officer some toothpaste to dampen the effects of teargas during the anti-government demos in Nakuru.
However, a police vehicle attached to Salgaa police station would pull up with three to four occupants who are suspected to have shot at the journalist four times at close range.
“I left home at 1: 30 pm thinking that I was going to cover protests and go back home. Little did I know that I’d end up at a hospital with stitches on my thigh,” Wanjeri said.
She added: “I don’t know what kind of damage those scars are going to do to me.”
She was hit by bullets despite wearing a press gear which clearly identified her from regular protesters.
Scribes who were present at the time of the incident rushed her to a nearby hospital on board a motorbike.
Wanjeri, who also reports for Kameme FM, was rushed to Valley Hospital in Nakuru where she was attended to.
The Kameme TV reporter was among a host of other reporters who had been deployed to cover events as they unfolded in Nakuru where police lobbed teargas to disperse a group of demonstrators who had converged in the city.
Nakuru was among the areas that witnessed protests on Tuesday, July 16, 2024. Other areas included Nairobi, Kajiado, Machakos, Kakamega, Eldoret, Karatina, Homa Bay and Kisumu.
The scribe said the three bullets had been successfully extracted from her thigh but she was unable to determine how long it would take to fully recover.
She appealed to the police to identify the officer who shot at her so that justice could be done.
“I know justice will be served; why you shot me, I don’t know,” she said.