Distinguished Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi has been charged with unlawful possession of ammunition linked to protests final month during which at the very least 19 individuals have been killed.
He denied the cost and has been launched on bail.
He was not charged with “facilitation of terrorist acts”, because the police had earlier stated.
On Sunday, investigators stated they’d seized telephones, a laptop computer, and notebooks from his Lukenya house on the outskirts of the capital, Nairobi, and exhausting drives, computer systems, tear gasoline canisters and a clean firearm spherical from his workplace within the metropolis.
His arrest – and particularly the suggestion that he would face terrorism expenses – sparked a wave of condemnation, with human rights teams denouncing it as aimed toward suppressing opposition voices. The activist denied the accusations towards him, saying in a publish on X: “I’m not a terrorist.”
As he appeared in courtroom on Monday, fellow activists and supporters, who had gathered to point out their solidarity and help, sang the nationwide anthem.
The alleged offences are linked to the 25 June protests when, in accordance with the state-funded Kenya Nationwide Fee on Human Rights (KNCHR), 19 individuals died when demonstrators clashed with police. A whole bunch have been additionally injured and property and companies have been broken.
Most of these killed died from gunshot wounds, with human rights teams blaming police brutality.
Nonetheless, Inside Minister Kipchumba Murkomen described the demonstrations as “terrorism disguised as dissent” and an “unconstitutional try” to vary the federal government. He stated that a number of police station had been attacked, with many officers injured and automobiles set on fireplace.
No less than 38 extra individuals have been killed in subsequent protests earlier this month, the KNCHR says.
Since June final yr, greater than 100 individuals have been killed in successive waves of anti-government protests, with police accused of utilizing extreme pressure to quell each, resulting in additional demonstrations.
President William Ruto urged the police to shoot violent protesters within the leg, quite than killing them.
On Sunday, a coalition of 37 rights organisations condemned Mr Mwangi’s arrest on “unjustified terrorism allegations”, describing it because the “newest escalation in a scientific crackdown that has seen lots of of younger Kenyans detained on fabricated terrorism expenses”.
“What started as focused persecution of younger protesters demanding accountability has metastasized right into a full-scale assault on Kenya’s democracy,” they stated in a joint assertion.
James Orengo, a veteran politician and governor of Siaya county, stated it was “ridiculous to cost Boniface Mwangi and our youngsters who’ve demonstrated a excessive degree of political consciousness with terrorism”.
Mr Mwangi has been detained a number of instances up to now, and has been on the centre of many protests.
In Might, he and a Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire have been detained in Tanzania, the place they’d travelled to attend the trial of Tanzanian opposition chief Tundu Lissu, who’s accused of treason.
Following their launch a number of days later, each stated they’d been kidnapped, tortured and sexually assaulted. They’ve since filed a case on the regional East African Courtroom of Justice over the matter.
Mr Mwangi is extensively considered certainly one of Kenya’s most distinguished and fearless activists with a major a part of his life outlined by his push for social justice.
He has been the face of many protests up to now, a few of them dramatic and symbolic. This contains the 2013 demonstration when he introduced piglets coated in blood to the gates of parliament in a protest towards “grasping MPs” – who have been demanding a pay improve.
In 2024, he known as on individuals to deliver coffins to the streets in a logo of the best way he stated MPs have been taxing Kenyans “to demise” and to signify individuals killed by police in protests.
He has been overwhelmed, arrested and detained many instances for his daring and provocative actions. He has usually spoken in regards to the bodily and emotional scars from his years of activism – and but he has remained undeterred.
A former photojournalist, Mr Mwangi rose to world prominence after he documented the lethal violence that adopted the 2007 election, together with his highly effective photographs capturing the depth of the disaster during which greater than 1,000 individuals died and 350,000 compelled from their houses.
He subsequently gained the CNN Africa Photojournalist of the Yr Award in 2008.
Mr Mwangi has since stated that the journey of documenting these photographs personally affected him and left him disillusioned. He later moved to activism, and has since gained different accolades, together with being named among the many high 100 most influential Africans by New African journal in 2020.
