Wanjeri: I was targeted by police during anti-government protests in Nakuru

Lying on her hospital bed, Mediamax journalist Catherine Wanjeri tries to put on a brave face as she talks about the traumatic ordeal she endured 72 hours ago.

Ms Wanjeri was shot three times in the leg outside Faulu Bank on Kenyatta Avenue on Tuesday afternoon while covering the anti-government protests.

Seven minutes before she was shot, she had been on the phone talking to her mother, who had asked her to be careful while covering the protests.

But little did her mother know that minutes later, after speaking to her daughter, she would receive another call asking her to give consent for her daughter to undergo surgery.

The police, Ms Wanjeri says, pointed at her before shooting, something that made her feel targeted by the police.

"They shot at me four times and three bullets lodged in my thigh. Nobody can convince me that I was not targeted during the protest," says Ms Wanjeri.

Before the incident, Ms Wanjeri says she had noticed that the police were starting to be unfriendly towards journalists.

Normally, she says, they (journalists) would stay close to the police while covering the protests, but on that fateful day, things took a drastic turn when the police seemed to turn hostile towards them.

"I remember at one point a policeman asked me why we were following them when we were not the ones protesting. We took it lightly. Later we were tear gassed and minutes later I was shot," she says.

Before she was shot, the Kameme TV/radio reporter notes that while covering an earlier protest, a police officer had made what she says was a threat to her, telling her "Nimekuona na nimekumark".

"I can't call it a coincidence after being threatened, tear-gassed on live television and now shot at. I am not getting any younger and I do not know what the scars will do to me. I was almost in trouble before my operation because of high blood pressure. I ask for justice to be done for me. I ask the Nakuru County Commander and the administration to help me get justice," she says.

According to Nakuru Journalists Association chairman Joseph Openda, doctors say Ms Wanjeri is currently in a stable condition but they are still monitoring her progress.

"The doctors are yet to know when Ms Wanjeri will be discharged. At the moment, they are keen to monitor her progress before allowing her to go home," said Mr Openda.