Mombasa residents seeking to attend Mashujaa Day fete forced to swim in sewerage

Mombasa residents have started speaking out on bizarre acts that they were forced to perform as they sought to attend Mashujaa Day celebrations on Sunday.

Those who spoke to Standard newspaper accused military soldiers who were on patrol of exerting unnecessary force on civilians and barring them from attending the public function at Mama Ngina Waterfront Park.

The military operatives mostly told the residents who were found along the heavily guarded streets of Mombasa to sit and swim in sewerage.

Soldiers force Mombasa residents seeking to attend Mashujaa Day fete to swim in sewerage Pulse Live Kenya

"They wrestled me to the ground and later forced me to swim inside a filthy sewage. I tried to run but they hit me with the butt of a gun," one 23-year-old businessman told reporters.

Forced to remove clothes

Another resident, Moses Juma, narrated that he and his girlfriend were on their way to the Mashujaa Day fete when they were accosted by soldiers.

The soldiers allegedly asked Juma to strip off his clothes before they proceeded to beat him up. Later, the couple was forced to sit in a sewer until the military agents were out of sight.

"This is needless terror. Anyway, I blame myself for trying to attend the Mashujaa celebrations. If I had stayed at home, I could not have been forced to drink from a sewer," one Salim Matano told reporters.