Samuel Baraka is only two years old, but he vividly recalls an encounter with the police inside their single-roomed house in Kawangware 56 area. You don’t know him, but you probably know his father Francis Wafula.

Mr Wafula came into the limelight after a photo of him carrying a baby on one side, and a Bible on the other, confronting a police officer went viral on social media. Although many days have passed, he is still engulfed in pain.

Since the incident occurred, his son has been very cautious with visitors. He is quick to interrogate the ‘strangers’ in their house and also recount what he saw.

Prayers

“This is our house, why are you here?” he asks us.

“We are here to talk to your parents,” I respond.

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“Talk to my parents? What about? I’m Samuel Baraka, shall I pray first?” he continues.

Astounded, I glance at his father seeking intervention but he only smiles at him.

“Policeman came to our house. He beat my mum with a huge stick,” he explains, pointing across his chest.

“She fell down, hitting her head on a stool. She was carrying my younger sister Esther.”

He took a long pause, lifted his head and looked at me. His eyes lit like fire, his white teeth reflecting against the sun rays passing through the half open door.

“I do not like the police, but I do not fear them either. My dad prays for them every night, even though that policeman said he would shoot him,” he says.

Enough is enough

He stops and looks as his mother walks in, holding Esther. He excitedly calls out his sister’s name, quickly changing emotions from sombre to jovial.

“My mum is called Emily Akinyi. When the police hit her, my dad came out and asked the police why they were hurting his family, when he had been praying for them but the police ordered him to put down his Bible,” continues the small boy.

Wafula takes over and tells us how he had been fasting and praying for the country. He says he had lost enough neighbours to bullets and his family chocked on tear gas day and night.

All he wanted was an end to this. He turned to God in prayers.

“I could hear police calling out all the men who were in their houses to come out. I did not bother and instead went to cover my girl with a blanket to reduce the fumes from the tear gas.

“Then there was a bang on the door asking me to open it or they would break it,” he narrates.

His wife insisted that they open the door and explain to the officers that they had nothing to do with the chaos outside.

“Before she could finish talking, the police hit her hard with a club across the chest and she immediately passed out. Our nine-month-old daughter fell on her and twisted her arm,” he says. Wafula jumped out of the bed, still holding his Bible to rescue his wife.  Looking at her on the floor he feared for the worst.

“I have been given authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm me,” he quoted a verse to the officer who was pointing a gun at him.

“Why are you hurting my family, when we have denied ourselves the pleasures of the world, to pray for you officer?”

Ready to die

“But the police ordered him: “Kijana nimesema uweke Bibilia chini,” (Young man, I have said put your Bible down),” intruded a young voice across the room.

“Kill me if you want, but I will not put down this Bible,” Wafula responded.

Another officer came and pulled away the police officer. He then took Esther and his Bible and went out to confront the police.

“I thought my wife was dead and the rage in me couldn’t allow me to sit and watch another person go through the same ordeal. So I went out to stop them, to ask them to leave Kawangware,” he says with great conviction.

“If you cut my arm and cut yours isn’t it the same blood that will flow?” he asked the first officer he came across.

“Go and ask your leaders,” the officer answered him back.

Emily was later taken to the hospital. She is still recovering but cannot do tasks that require a lot of effort.