A Senator has told of her regrets on spending a cold night in a dirty, crowded cell with hordes of criminals for taking only two glasses of wine. Nominated senator Joy Gwendo said she was taken in after failing an Alcoblow test.
“I don’t have a drinking problem. I only took two glasses of wine. Maybe I should have let my bodyguard and driver stay so that they drive me home, then I wouldn’t have been arrested,” she said.
“I was really disappointed at how Kenyans took it. I made a mistake. For me, the experience taught me that Alcoblow helps to save lives,” she said.
The 33-year-old TNA senator spent the night of Saturday, March 29 at Muthaiga police station after she was caught drink driving on Mbagathi Way at around 11.30pm.
She had been enjoying drinks with friends at Hurlingham that evening before leaving shortly after 11 pm.
“I just got out of the car and proceeded to take the Alcoblow test. I blew it and failed because the threshold is 0.3. I was then arrested and taken to Muthaiga police station where I spent the night,” she said.
The senator was locked up in a cold, dirty cell with the pungent smell of urine wafting in the air.
She was locked up in a crowded cell with a woman who was accused of stabbing her husband and hordes of suspected male criminals.
“The other lady was a 27-year-old woman who had been arrested for stabbing her husband. She was there with her child,” said the senator.
Ms Gwendo was surprised at how courteously the police treated the women in the cells.
“They did not tell us to remove one shoe or belts. We gave up our phones but they were later returned to us. Soon, more women joined us bringing the number to ten. The police took us (the women) to one of their offices and gave each of us a seat and a blanket,” Ms Gwendo recalled.
She said that she took the time to bond with the other ladies, who talked about their challenges in their relationships and marriages.
At 5am, the police told them to contact a person outside and have them pay the fine of Sh 20,000 and bring the receipt so that they could be released.
“I called my boyfriend Thomas Mbewa. He was the only one who has access to my bank accounts,” she said.
The senator said that the only person she told that she had been arrested that night was the friend with whom she was meeting with at Langata, and was surprised at the vitriol and scorn poured upon her by fellow Kenyans.
-nairobinews.nation.co.ke
