Kenya rights activist Boniface Mwangi charged with possession of ammunition
Boniface Mwangi was charged by the police on Monday, two days after he was arrested and accused of possessing unused tear gas canisters, a '7.62mm blank round', two mobile phones, a laptop and notebooks.
Kenya has been facing mass antigovernment protests across the country since last year – first against tax increases in a finance bill and later to demand the resignation of President William Ruto.
Since the protests broke out, police have been accused of human rights abuses, including allegations of government critics and activists being abducted and tortured.
Rights groups said more than 100 people have been killed in the protests, which have been harshly suppressed.
This month, at least 31 people were killed and more than 100 injured in a government crackdown on a protest. In June, at least 19 people were killed in a similar demonstration against Ruto.
Police accused Mwangi, a former photojournalist, of 'facilitating terrorist acts' during the June protests and arrested him on Saturday. The activist denied the charges, saying in a social media post shared by his supporters: 'I am not a terrorist.'
His arrest triggered a wave of condemnation online with the hashtag #FreeBonifaceMwangi going viral and rights groups condemning it.
The search warrant police used to raid Mwangi's home, which an ally shared with journalists, accused the campaigner of having paid 'goons' to stoke unrest at last month's protests.
However, 37 rights organisations and dozens of activists said they have not yet managed to prove that a judge had issued that warrant.
Mwangi's arrest on 'unjustified terrorism allegations' represents an abuse of the justice system to crush the opposition, the organisations said in a joint statement.
'What began as targeted persecution of young protesters demanding accountability has metastasized into a full-scale assault on Kenya's democracy,' the groups said.
In June last year, Al Jazeera's digital documentary strand Close Up profiled Mwangi during a ferocious police crackdown. He then said his nickname online was the 'People's Watchman' because he was striving to get justice for the families of protesters killed by police.
Mwangi has been arrested multiple times in Kenya.
He was arrested on May 19 this year in Dar-es-Salaam, neighbouring Tanzania's largest city, where he had travelled to support treason-accused Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu.
Both Mwangi and a fellow detainee, award-winning Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire, accused the Tanzanian police of torturing and sexually abusing them while they were in custody.
The pair have brought a case before the East African Court of Justice.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
27 minutes ago
- Al Jazeera
Sudan military destroyed UAE plane carrying Colombian mercenaries: State TV
Sudan's air force has destroyed a UAE aircraft carrying Colombian mercenaries as it was landing at an airport in Darfur controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), army-aligned state TV reported. The attack late on Wednesday killed at least 40 people, the state broadcaster reported. The airport has recently come under repeated air strikes by the Sudanese army, which has been at war with the RSF since April 2023. A military source, speaking to the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity, said the Emirati plane 'was bombed and completely destroyed' at Darfur's Nyala airport. There was no immediate comment from the RSF. AFP quoted an Emirati official denouncing what he considered false allegations that the Sudanese army had destroyed the plane. Colombia's President Gustavo Petro said his government was trying to find out how many Colombians died in the attack. 'We will see if we can bring their bodies back,' he wrote on X. State TV said the aircraft had taken off from an airbase in the Gulf, carrying dozens of foreign fighters and military equipment intended for the RSF, which controls nearly all of Darfur. The army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has long accused the United Arab Emirates of supplying advanced weaponry, including drones, to the RSF via Nyala Airport. Abu Dhabi has denied the accusations. Satellite images released by Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab have shown multiple Chinese-made long-range drones at the airport of the South Darfur state capital. On Monday, Sudan's army-aligned government accused the UAE of recruiting and funding Colombian mercenaries to fight for the RSF, claiming it has documents proving that. Reports of Colombian fighters in Darfur date back to late 2024 and have been confirmed by United Nations experts. Colombia seeks to ban mercenaries This week, the Joint Forces – a pro-army coalition in Darfur – reported more than 80 Colombian mercenaries fighting on the RSF's side in el-Fasher, the last Darfur state capital still under army control. The army also released video footage it said was of 'foreign mercenaries believed to be from Colombia', which could not be independently verified. In December, Sudan said Colombia's Foreign Ministry had expressed regret 'for the participation of some of its citizens in the war'. Colombian mercenaries, many former soldiers and guerrillas, have appeared in other global conflicts and were previously hired by the UAE for operations in Yemen and the Gulf. In his post on Wednesday, Petro said he was moving to ban mercenary activity, calling it 'a trade in men turned into commodities to kill'. As fighting continues, thousands of families trapped in the besieged city of el-Fasher are at 'risk of starvation', the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) has warned. An outbreak of cholera in the North Darfur state, of which el-Fasher is the capital, has further added to the misery. Sudan's war, now in its third year, has killed tens of thousands, displaced 13 million, and plunged the nation into the world's worst hunger and displacement crisis.
Al Jazeera
17 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
A migrant march in Mexico continues despite scrutiny of organiser's arrest
A march has begun from the southern Mexican state of Chiapas northward to the central part of the country, in protest of policies that make legal immigration status difficult to achieve. Wednesday's march set out from the border city of Tapachula, near Guatemala, and nearly 300 migrants, asylum seekers and supporters took part. But the demonstration was overshadowed by the arrest one day earlier of one of its leaders, prominent immigration activist Luis Garcia Villagran. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum addressed the arrest in her morning news conference on Wednesday. She alleged that Garcia Villagran had been detained for taking part in human trafficking. 'That is the crime,' she said, adding that Garcia Villagran was 'not an activist'. She added that an arrest warrant had been pending for the activist for years. But it was unclear why his arrest was carried out now. The nonprofit Pueblo Sin Fronteras, however, disputed Sheinbaum's characterisation of Garcia Villagran. 'The detention of Luis Villagran, director and human rights defender, is an unacceptable assault,' the nonprofit's head, Irineo Mujica, wrote in a post to social media. 'Luis Villagrán's only 'crime' is to defend those who have no money or voice, and to tell the truth, which bothers the powerful. Stop criminalising human rights defenders!' Mujica – who was detained himself in 2019 on similar charges, only to be released – argued that Garcia Villagran's arrest was a political distraction. 'This is a smokescreen: dirty and corrupt politics to cover up the true networks of corruption,' he said. Mujica and Garcia Villagran have both been prominent voices in a movement to make legal immigration pathways more accessible. They have also been among the organisers associated with the trend of the migrant 'caravans' that travel from southern Mexico to the United States border in recent years. Some of those past caravans have involved thousands of people, many of whom banded together for protection against criminal networks, corrupt officials and other threats they may face as they migrate. Migration northwards, however, has slowed, particularly since US President Donald Trump took office for a second term in January. Trump quickly attempted to bar asylum claims at the border, a move that has spurred a legal backlash. Last month, a court blocked his asylum ban on the basis that it created an 'alternative immigration system' without deference to Congress's laws. But Trump's policies have nevertheless had a dampening effect on immigration at the border. In June, US Customs and Border Protection recorded only 9,306 'encounters' with migrants and asylum seekers at the country's southern border – a nearly 93 percent drop compared with the same period last year. Wednesday's march had a different objective than those past caravans, though, particularly as migrants and asylum seekers turn away from the US and seek other destinations. Organisers of the march sought to draw attention to the slow processing time for asylum applications in Mexico and other hurdles to achieving legal immigration status. It also served as a demonstration against Mexican policies that have sought to keep undocumented migrants and asylum seekers in the south of the country, away from the US border. The Trump administration has pressured Mexico to crack down on immigration into the US, including through the threat of tariffs. Garcia Villagran's arrest in the hours leading up to the march, however, left some migrants and asylum seekers fearful of taking part in the march. The news agency AFP obtained one message that was circulating among participants that read, 'Hide, don't let yourselves get caught.' A Catholic priest who took part in Wednesday's march, Heyman Vazquez, told The Associated Press news agency that Garcia Villagran's arrest was 'unjust'. He added that the arrest revealed a sense of insecurity in the government over the question of migration. The solution, he explained, would be to make it easier for migrants and asylum seekers to obtain legal status, thereby removing the need for such protests.
Al Jazeera
21 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Ghana helicopter crash kills defence, environment ministers
Ghana helicopter crash kills defence, environment ministers NewsFeed Footage from a forest in Ghana's Ashanti region showed smouldering wreckage from a helicopter crash that killed the country's defence and environment ministers. Three other officials and three air force crew members were also killed. Video Duration 01 minutes 17 seconds 01:17 Video Duration 01 minutes 06 seconds 01:06 Video Duration 00 minutes 30 seconds 00:30 Video Duration 01 minutes 52 seconds 01:52 Video Duration 01 minutes 40 seconds 01:40 Video Duration 00 minutes 44 seconds 00:44 Video Duration 00 minutes 43 seconds 00:43
