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EJE Coordinator Anthony Mwoki Kanare Statement After Illegal Arrest and Detention by Pangani Police on April 19th

 Anthony Mwoki Kanare (at the front of the picture) coordinator of our EJE campaign was detained by the police today April 19th. This illegal arrest is another example of the persecution of social justice activists who are demanding an end to police killings, violence and abuse of power in Mathare and in other poor settlements. We ask for your solidarity as we follow up on this case, and to support us to prevent the harassment of all Mathare residents including MSJC activists. In the last few months many of our members have been illegally detained or harassed as a direct result of their human rights work. 
Here is Kanare’s experience in his own words:
“Today 19th April 2017 at around 8 am as we were walking along Pangani Muratina road Mlango Kubwa together with my friends Douglas Muchai and Samuel Waweru from Voice of Kiamaiko CBO, we were heading to Mission of Hope for our usual meeting with the Director, we were stopped by plain clothed police officers believed to be attached at Pangani Police station.They were driving in a Pro Box car KBX and forcefully arrested me Antony Mburu Mwoki. I was squeezed in the car boot where I found other three arrested persons. After three hours of mental torture, it was clear that this is criminalization, even with the intent of disappearing, for how they picked me is a symbolic that they are targeting the campaign of which I am the coordinator at MSJC — extra judicial executions and police brutality in Mathare. Douglas Muchai contacted field coordinator Kennedy Chindi of MSJC who raised the alarm of my illegal arrest, and members of Mathare human rights networks sent messages of solidarity and demanded my immediate release. It is after the mental torture in the boot for at least three hours, as they were trying to extract information related to the documentation of cases relating to police abuse of power and extra judicial executions that we do at Mathare Social Justice Centre (MSJC), that they released me. They asked me for a bribe of 1000 ksh which I refused and said I don’t bribe for my freedom. They released me along chai road and told me in swahili kwenda after they received a phone call.”
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