Brazilian Military Police Harass Citizen TV’s Waihiga Mwaura After He Found Himself On The Wrong Side Of Town In Rio

Waihiga Mwaura found himself in an awkward situation with Brazilian military in Rio after taking a wrong turn.

Brazilian military has been called upon to offer reinforcement to the police in keeping law and order during the entire period of the 2016 Olympics.

The sight of military personnel keeping watch in the streets of Rio is now a common thing since the Olympics began.

Citizen TV’s Waihiga Mwaura who has been sent to the South American nation to cover Olympics, recently ran into trouble with Brazilian authorities patrolling the streets of Rio.

Waihiga and colleagues left a McDonald’s fast food after watching the men 10,000m final, and took a taxi to head to their hotel. The taxi driver decided to take a shortcut through a dangerous slum area when they met Brazilian military who were not so kind to them.

Waihiga and his colleagues were ordered to stop and walk out of their car while lifting their hands up; all this while the soldiers were pointing guns at them.

“I got out of the co-drivers seat and walked over to one of the officers but before I could get close to him, he gestured to me to lift up my sweatshirt while brandishing a pistol in the other hand.” Waihiga narrated the ordeal in part.

Efforts to identify themselves were met by aggression from the soldiers who were suspecting them of being gangsters colluding with the taxi driver.

The soldiers inspected the car trying to find hidden and dangerous items. Waihiga and colleagues were also frisked before they were allowed to get back to their taxi and proceed with their journey.

“We quickly jumped into our car and sped off, glad that we would not spend a night in a notorious Brazilian jail that have a reputation of rough house treatment and violence among prisoners.” Waihiga added.

The Citizen TV sport anchor said they resorted to wearing Kenyan branded attire and returning home as quickly as possible to avoid running into the dreaded military police again.

Credit: Tuko