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Boniface Mwangi arrested over alleged links to June 25 protests
Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi speaks to the media in Nairobi on June 2, 2025 about the torture he was subjected to in Tanzania.
What you need to know:
- Detectives also raided the activist’s Mageuzi Hub offices at Metropolitan Court on Argwings Kodhek Road in Hurlingham.
- A search warrant seen by the Daily Nation says the police are investigating incitement to violence and money laundering charges.
Activist Boniface Mwangi was on Saturday evening arrested by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), his wife Njeri and fellow activists said.
Njeri said her husband, who had on Friday filed a case with his Ugandan colleague Agather Atuhaire against the Tanzanian government in the East African Court of Justice, was taken away from their home in Lukenya, Machakos County.
According to Njeri, the detectives cited “terrorism and arson” as the reasons for his arrest, adding that his gadgets were also confiscated and he was driven off to the DCI headquarters in Nairobi.
“The police have come to our home in Courage Base and are taking my husband, talking of terrorism and arson! They’ve taken his gadgets and said they are taking him to DCI Headquarters. I can’t breathe,” Ms Njeri tweeted at 5:19 pm.
Later, detectives raided the activist’s Mageuzi Hub offices at Metropolitan Court on Argwings Kodhek Road in Hurlingham.
A search warrant seen by the Daily Nation says the police are investigating incitement to violence and money laundering charges, among other charges, as well as alleged plans by the activists to finance countrywide protests that occurred on June 25.
“DCI is undertaking investigations into criminal offences that include damage to property, incitement to violence, arson, robbery with violence, and money laundering,” the DCI says in the search warrant.
Sworn by an officer named Keith Robert, the DCI says Mr Mwangi is suspected to have been involved in planning and financing the June 25 protests.
“DCI is in receipt of an intelligence report from a reliable source indicating that occupants of Mageuzi Hub offices at Metropolitan Court were involved in the planning, procurement of resources, execution or issuance of commands related to the countrywide protests, including those in Nairobi City on June 25, 2025,” the officer says in his search warrant affidavit.
The search warrant, issued by the Milimani Magistrate’s Court on July 17, also allows the DCI to search and enter the premises controlled by Mr Mwangi to “open, search, have access to, seize, remove and carry away Mr Mwangi’s documents, electronic storage devices, including servers, computer systems, security safes, money and any containers, and all relevant items for the purposes of carrying out investigations on offences.”
Political leaders and activists condemned the arrest.
“When will this campaign of intimidation and harassment stop? You openly walk with militias but arrest law-abiding citizens? We know you have instructions from the rogue regime to target as many human rights defenders as you can to intimidate and silence Kenyans, but citizens of goodwill will resist,” People’s Liberation Party Leader Martha Karua said.
Senior Counsel Paul Muite said: “The day the DCI finds convenient to arrest is on a Saturday? Any warrant for the search? Arrest? Ignoring the Constitution? Orders from above?”
Vocal Africa’s Hussein Khalid also condemned the arrest.
“I have known Boniface Mwangi for many, many years. I can say without a shred of doubt that he is neither a terrorist nor an arsonist. This is nothing but pure intimidation and it won’t work,” Khalid said.
In the case Mr Mwangi and Ms Atuhaire filed against the Tanzanian government, the activists accuse it of grave human rights violations including enforced disappearance, torture, arbitrary detention, sexual abuse, and unlawful deportation.
They want to be paid Sh130 million each for the violations.
