SON of late humorist Wahome Mutahi aka Whispers is being detained in Ethiopian town of Bole.
Patrick Mutahi, a research fellow at Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies who works with Article 19 was allegedly nabbed on arrival in Addis Ababa on Thursday.
Article 19 is an NGO which specializes in promotion of freedom of expression and information. Henry Maina, the director of Article 19 in charge of East Africa region told the Star that Mutahi went there on the organization’s business.
“He was there for a series of meetings to do with upcoming universal peer review mechanism under the UN Commission on Human Rights. As you may know Ethiopia is due for review this year. We have also been doing a lot of media-related programmes in Ethiopia,” Maina said.
According to Maina, the last contact he had with Mutahi was around lunchtime on Thursday when he texted to say the immigration officials were taking long time checking his pass port. He lost contact with him since then.
The Kenyan embassy in Ethiopia, coordinating with the foreign affairs ministry spend the better part of yesterday trying to locate him. They succeeded yesterday afternoon but no much information was forthcoming on why he was being detained.
“I informally gathered that they are likely to charge him with subversive activities of training opposition people with view to upsetting the order there. Its a shame when you consider the positive work we have done over there,” Maina said.
Other sources indicated that Mutahi may be deported from the country. Maina condemned the action saying as the headquarters of Africa, Ethiopia cannot continue to espouse regressive tendencies like illegal arrests and detentions. Ethiopia has been cracking down on journalists and activists for a while now.
Source: The Star
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