Meru County Governor Kawira Mwangaza has been released after being briefly arrested in Ruiga Village, Imenti Central Constituency.
This comes after police were called to a farmstead where she reportedly donated a cow as part of her 'Okolea' outreach program, which had been outlawed by the Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki.
According to neighbors, Kawira confronted the police and demanded who had sent them to the homestead before boarding the police Landcruiser.
Did you read this?
While the Governor maintains she is under arrest, police on the ground believe she staged the incident by quickly jumping into the police vehicle and pretending to be arrested.
The Governor later took to Facebook, posting photographs of herself exiting the police van and declaring that she had been "set free."
"Finally. I'm free. "I thank God that I am safe," Governor Kawira captioned the photographs.
Interior CS stopped Governor Mwangaza from holding meetings on the 'Okolea' outreach program on September 22, calling them inciteful.
The Interior CS issued the order after confusion erupted during one of Mwangaza's 'Okolea Programme' functions in Makiri, Igembe South Constituency. Angry villagers demonstrated during the incident by murdering one cow and torching mattresses that Mwagaza had come to offer to the public.
“Reports that have reached me is that the Governor’s (Mwangaza) allies were inciteful, disrupted peace and assaulted journalists….thinking they are defending the Meru governor. The targeted people also broke the law,” Kindiki said.
He added: “We have banned meetings that incite people. This is final. We are not going to allow it. If you think it is a joke, try it. Don’t try me.”
