Kenyan Gospel rapper Eko Dydda has been quarantined at the Mbagathi Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) after a night of drama at Kilimani Police Station.
According to reports by activist Boniface Mwangi, Eko Dydda was arrested on Saturday inside the curfew hours coming from Nairobi’s CBD, where he had gone to buy medicine for his wife Sylvia Dydda.
Howevver, while coming back, it is alleged that he got a puncture, and by the time he fixed it, it was 6.50pm, and by the time he reached Coptic hospital along Ngong Road, it was already 7pm, and was arrested by officers from Kilimani Police Station.
Read: 39 Somali Women Arrested At A Wedding Party Among 70 Quarantined For Flouting Gov’t Directives
“He continued with the journey home and on reaching Ngong Road, near Coptic Hospital, he found a police road block at around 7:10pm. He was stopped and arrested. The police had commissioned a breakdown truck and every car that violated the curfew was being towed to Kilimani Police Station. On reaching the Police Station, Eko was booked in the cells. My medicine was left inside the car,” says Sylvia, according to the story shared by Mwangi.
Sylvia says that Dydda spent the night at the Station, and she went to see him the next day, Sunday, to try and bail him out.
She was asked to pay a bail of Ksh5,000 so that his husband could be released, awaiting arraignment on Monday.
“Early Sunday morning, my neighbour took me to the Police Station because I could not walk properly. On arrival, the officer manning the Occurrence Book asked if l had money to pay bail for my husband, following which he would be required to appear at Milimani Court on Monday. I think I asked too many questions, as l pleaded his case, because they eventually told me to get out of the Police Station and only return when I had the money. I went outside for a bit and then went back in to ask if I could pay via M-pesa. The officer replied, “toka hapa, enda leta cash” (Get out and go come with cash). I was secretly recording our conversation,” she says.
Read: Persons Found Outside During Curfew Hours To Be Quarantined For 14 Days – Health CAS
However, according to the clip seen by this writer, the policeman who was manning the OB desk is seen explaining the circumstances of the arrest, hence Kahawa Tungu could not independently authenticate most of the allegations labelled against the policemen.
Here’s the video:
She was also asked to pay for towing charges, which she did after an alleged cat and mouse game with the police officers and the towing car services.
“After waiting for an hour, he brought Eko out from the cells, handed him the receipt and told him to go pay the towing charges to the breakdown vehicle operators, since it was they who had his car keys. We found the breakdown vehicle people behind the toilets. I found that weird. I told them l would only pay them if l got a receipt. They referred me to a female police officer who came, picked the Ksh5,000 cash and then took me to a shop inside the police station and gave me a receipt, after I requested ,” alleges Sylvia.
Sylvia says as Eko Dydda went to get the keys, she heard one police officer that they could “make Eko get lost” since she had recorded them. We could also not authenticate this.
“Eko went to get the keys and as I was waiting for him, I heard one of the officers saying, “Hii mama imetu record hajui tuna weza poteza hii mutu yake.” (This woman recorded us and she doesn’t know we can make her man disappear.) We got into our car and drove off,” she adds.
On their way home, she alleges that the police officers started calling them with different numbers to go back to the police station, which they declined and even stopped picking the calls.
They later went back to the station, where Eko Dydda was re-arrested and the receipts confiscated, under grounds that the bail had been cancelled.
“We arrived back at the station at around 12:30pm. Eko was re-arrested and they took back the receipts they had given us but, luckily, l had taken pictures. The officer who had issued us with the bail told us to take back our money because the bail had been cancelled by the boss,” says Sylvia.
Here are the receipts:
Inside the station, Sylvia was told that her husband would be forced to “pay’ for the recording she had done.
“Eko had left me outside the Police Station and when l went inside to follow up on what was going on, l was told that since I had recorded them, they were going to teach my husband a lesson. “This is Eko Dydda, the President gave artists Ksh100 million, he will vomit this money”, one officer told me. The OCS came and ordered his officers to take Eko to “that place.” I didn’t know where “that place” was but, later in the day, Eko called and informed me that he had been taken to the quarantine center at KMTC,” she says.
At the facility, Eko Dydda will pay Ksh2,000 per day, amounting to Ksh28,000 for two weeks, the standard quarantine time.
“l went to KMTC Mbagathi, where l met the officers who had taken Eko there. They told me, “Eko paid us Ksh10,000 and insisted on a receipt. Now he will pay the government Ksh28,000.” They went on to say, “Where do you think our money will come from? It comes from the citizens. I will teach him a lesson,” alleges Sylvia.
Email your news TIPS to Editor@kahawatungu.com or WhatsApp +254707482874. You can also find us on Telegram through www.t.me/kahawatungu
Email your news TIPS to Editor@kahawatungu.com or WhatsApp +254707482874
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings