Nairobi — On Thursday last week, a group of 22 activists were arrested in Nairobi as they protested over missing school funds and compensation for Mau Forest land grabbers.

Among them were two elderly women who were to spend Christmas at Central Police Station. The women, Angelina Nabutele, 65, and Rose Itieba, 63, were weak and hungry when they were released on Saturday evening.

Collapsed in cells

And when asked by Nation if they knew why they had been arrested, the women, who will appear in court today on a charge of unlawful assembly, said they did not.

Mrs Nabutele said a neighbour had on Wednesday told her that they were going to meet the Prime Minister in his Treasury office. "Instead of seeing Amolo (PM Raila Odinga) who is my MP as promised, I ended up in the police cells for Christmas," she said.

The two women reportedly collapsed in the cells on Friday night and were taken to Kenyatta National Hospital at around 2am. "It is bad there (cells)," said Mrs Nabutele, who lives in Kibera. "I will never go there again."

Mrs Itieba said she joined the delegation after word went round the estate that parents would start paying fees for their primary school children next year because funds for that purpose had been stolen. "I was worried. I have four grandchildren and I cannot afford their fees. Their mother left them with me after their father died," she said after her release.

"They have been getting food at school. What will I feed them on? This made me join the group... I wanted to see the PM over the matter as we had been told. Nobody told us that we would be arrested," she said. The group, from the Justice, Peace and Development lobby, engaged police in a hide-and-seek game before their arrest.

They were told to assemble at the Freedom Corner in Uhuru Park, but the plans changed when police cordoned off the area. The activists had barely started the protest to push for the resignation or sacking of Education minister Sam Ongeri and PS Karega Mutahi when police pounced on them at Aga Khan Walk.

A brief exchange of words ensued before the protesters, led by human rights activist Okiya Okoiti Omtatah, were bundled into a police van and driven to Central Police Station.

Suffered terribly

"My age couldn't let me to run. I fell and was seized by the police," Mrs Itieba said. A lawyer for the protesters, Mr Wanyiri Kihoro, said his clients had not been given any food while in police custody. "These women suffered terribly at the hands of people almost the age of their grandchildren. They ate nothing the whole time they were there," he said. After their release, Mr Omtatah said they would not be cowed into silence.

"We will fight till the education money is returned. We will only rest when the two professors resign," he said. Mr Omtatah called for countrywide demonstrations should the President and Prime Minister fail to sack Prof Ongeri and Prof Mutahi in two weeks.

Step aside

The Ministry of Education has been in the limelight after it emerged that Sh100 million intended for the Free Primary Education Programme had gone missing. A report by Britain's Department for International Department revealed the anomaly. Despite intense pressure to step aside, Prof Ongeri and Prof Mutahi have defied such calls, saying they were not to blame for the missing cash.