IPOA is investigating at least seven police officers, including Central OCPD Patrick Gogo, over the alleged manhandling and arrest of Citizen TV journalist Odee Francis during fuel price protests in Nairobi on October 20.
The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) is investigating at least seven police officers following the alleged manhandling and arrest of Citizen TV journalist Odee Francis on Tuesday, October 20.
According to IPOA, it is seeking to interview at least seven police officers accused of harassing and manhandling the journalist during protests over increased fuel prices in Nairobi's Central Business District (CBD). Among those to be questioned are Central Police Station OCPD Patrick Gogo and its OCS Joab Onyapidi. The list also includes five officers accused of arresting the journalist.
The officers are expected to explain why they arrested Citizen TV's crime reporter even though he identified himself several times as a journalist. The questioning is part of an investigation, and no findings have been made against any officer.
Odee says he was covering demonstrations against high fuel prices, organised by a section of human rights activists in the CBD, while the country was marking the 63rd Mashujaa Day. He was filming from the journalists' side when the activists began to run. An officer in a police uniform then pointed at him and told colleagues to arrest him too.
Odee says he asked why he was being arrested and identified himself as a registered journalist with an official badge, but the officers ignored him. He says they bundled him into a Land Cruiser and took him, together with other activists, to the station.
He also claimed that plainclothes officers dragged and beat him, tore his clothes and forcibly threw him into a police Land Rover. These are his claims, and IPOA's investigation will test them.
Odee was briefly held at Nairobi's Central Police Station with the activists before being released after the OCPD intervened and admitted he had been caught up in the violence. Officers reportedly confused him with other protesters.
The Crime Journalists Association of Kenya (CJAK) condemned Odee's arrest and assault. It urged the police and IPOA to investigate the incident and hold any officers found responsible to account.
The incident comes amid continued concern over press freedom and the treatment of journalists covering demonstrations in Kenya. The Media Council of Kenya (MCK) recorded 92 press freedom violations in 2025, down from 130 in 2024, with physical assaults accounting for 67 per cent of the reported cases.