THE leader of the Communist Party Marxist-Kenya (CPM-K) entered his third day of illegal detention today having been kidnapped and reportedly tortured by Kenyan authorities.

The CPM-K said today that its general secretary Booker Ngesa Omole, who was kidnapped by Kenyan security officers on Wednesday, was in Kitengela Remand Prison, around 20 miles oustide the capital Nairobi.

Mr Omole was pictured with his arm in a sling as he was transferred from Mlongo Police Station, where he had been held since his kidnapping. 

“This was not an arrest. This was not lawful detention. This was a kidnapping,” the party said in a statement, demanding Mr Omole’s immediate and unconditional release.

Mr Omole was severely beaten during the kidnapping, had been denied food and water and was in a traumatic state, the CPM-K reported.

The party described the incident as state violence in its naked form, aimed at intimidating not only Mr Omole but the broader organised working class and progressive movements in Kenya.

The party’s statement calls on workers, youth, trade unions, student groups, women’s organisations, human rights groups, and all democratic forces to mobilise in solidarity, defend democratic rights, and pressure the authorities for Omole’s release.

“No prison can contain the will of the people. No baton can beat down the truth. No regime can stop the march of history,” the statement said.

The CPM-K statement called on workers, youth, trade unions, student groups, women’s organisations, human rights groups and all democratic forces to mobilise in solidarity, defend democratic rights and pressure the authorities for Mr Omole’s release.

The incident has sparked growing public and international political pressure for the immediate release of Mr Omole. 

A statement from the Communist Party of Britain called on “the British labour and progressive movement to demand the release of Comrade Omole.”