NAIROBI, Kenya — Embu Town was anything but ordinary on Tuesday morning as protests erupted over the mysterious arrest of Manyatta MP Gitonga Mukunji, plunging the normally bustling county capital into a full-blown crisis.
Shops shuttered. Roads blocked. Teargas in the air. And at the center of it all — one missing lawmaker and a whole lot of unanswered questions.
Demonstrators, most of them youth, lit fires and took over major roads including the Embu-Meru and Embu-Kiritiri highways, clogging the town’s arteries near the NHIF offices.
Traffic was paralyzed. Movement ground to a halt. Police reinforcements rolled in by the truckload — but they weren’t calming the storm, they were fueling it.
Officers fired teargas and warning shots in a bid to scatter the growing crowds. But despite their efforts, the protest raged on, forcing a second consecutive day of business closures across the town.
Supermarkets, banks, and even government offices slammed their doors shut. Embu’s commercial heartbeat fell silent — replaced by chants, smoke, and frustration.
The spark? MP Gitonga Mukunji’s arrest on Monday afternoon.
According to his lawyer, Advocate Ndegwa Njiru, the MP was picked up around 3 p.m. and taken to Kibii Police Station, where he was booked just before 4 p.m. under OB number 06/07/07/2025.
But what started as a routine booking quickly spiraled into a mystery. The station’s OCS later confirmed that Mukunji was handed over to DCI officers from Juja, allegedly to face incitement charges. Yet as of Tuesday afternoon, no formal charges had been filed.
And that’s not all — more than 24 hours later, the MP’s whereabouts remain unknown. His car is still parked at the Kibii station. No charge sheet. No official update.
That vacuum of information has only fanned the flames. Supporters across Manyatta and wider Embu County have accused authorities of political witch hunts and unlawful detention. They’re demanding his immediate release — and some are promising to escalate the pressure if the silence continues.
The chaos comes just a day after 11 deaths were reported nationwide during Saba Saba protests, raising concerns over police conduct and allegations of enforced disappearances.
Human rights organizations, including the UN Human Rights Office, have called for restraint and transparency amid a wave of arrests, injuries, and unrest tied to anti-government demonstrations.
Now, with MP Mukunji’s case adding fuel to an already volatile moment, leaders allied to the legislator say they’ll be addressing the media soon, likely ratcheting up pressure on police to come clean about what really happened.
