#FreeOdongo: Outrage On Twitter As The Standard Journalist Is Arrested For Over-Praising City Billionaire

I thought one is supposed to be given a handout for ass-kissing? I guess not because all David Odongo from standard got was an arrest warrant.

Davido Odongo’s article dubbed “Meet Kimani Rugendo, the billionaire businessman” written on The Nairobian on 9th April 2016 and also published on SDE, is what earned him a date with police.

Reporting on Odongo’s arrest on KTN, Sophia Wanuna said police arrested the Standard writer after they were given orders from above to do so.

Odongo was being held at Embakasi police station having not been told what charges they were holding him for.

The irony is that Odongo’s article was actually praising billionaire Kimani Rugendo revealing how he built a successful business empire.

Kenyans on Twitter (KOT) have been using the tag #FreeOdongo to get authorities to free the Standard journalist whose mistake was to over praise city tycoon.

Kimani Rugendo

But Kenyans suspect the real reason why Odongo was arrested was his post on Facebook where he dissed Eric Kiraithe, government spokesman:

Eric Kiraithe, being a spokesman doesn’t mean you have to speak even when you have nothing to say. Are you mad? Do you live in Kenya? Get off your ivory tower and come back to reality. If I posted your number here so that Kenyans can call you every time a cop demands a bribe from them, you will run mad. Your phone won’t stop ringing. Do you know how much Kenyans are suffering? So now, Mr Kiraithe you want to blame the civil society for the mess, you and your fellow cops put us into? Stop taking Kenyans for fools. You must have worked hard to be in the position you are right now, stop cheapening yourself by making statements, that you, deep in your heart know isn’t true. Can you look at your children, straight in their eyes, and tell them the video by PBS is fiction? I also don’t like my country being portrayed negatively by foreign media, but the truth can’t be hidden. You have some good officers in the force, but majority are rotten to the core. ‪#‎EndOfRant (Odongo’s rant on Kiraithe)