Kenya scraps terror charge for activist Mwangi

Kenyan authorities on Monday charged prominent rights campaigner Boniface Mwangi with unlawful possession of a single blank cartridge, abandoning an earlier plan to prosecute him for “facilitating terrorist acts.”

Mwangi, 40, pleaded not guilty and was freed on bail after a magistrate’s court heard that police recovered the cartridge, tear‑gas canisters and electronics during weekend raids on his home in Lukenya and his Nairobi office.

Police had initially said Mwangi would face terrorism‑related counts in connection with the deadly 25 June demonstrations against new taxes that left at least 19 people dead, according to the state‑funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR). The activist denied any wrongdoing, writing on X that he was “not a terrorist.”

Rights groups and opposition politicians condemned the proposed terror charges as an attempt to silence dissent. A coalition of 37 organisations said the arrest marked “the latest escalation in a systematic crackdown that has seen hundreds of young Kenyans detained on fabricated terrorism charges.”

Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen has described the June unrest as “terrorism disguised as dissent,” accusing protesters of attacking police stations, torching vehicles and injuring officers. Human‑rights monitors, however, blame most of the deaths and injuries on police gunfire.

The KNCHR says at least 38 more people were killed in fresh anti‑government rallies this month, bringing the protest death toll to more than 100 since June 2024. President William Ruto has urged police to shoot violent demonstrators in the leg rather than kill them.

Mwangi, a former photojournalist who has been arrested multiple times for organising street protests, was briefly detained in Tanzania in May alongside Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire while attending a court hearing for Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu. Both allege they were abducted and tortured before being released and have filed suit at the East African Court of Justice.

Siaya county governor James Orengo, a veteran opposition figure, called Monday’s ammunition charge “ridiculous,” saying Mwangi and the country’s politically engaged youth were being treated as criminals for exercising their right to protest.

The court set Mwangi’s next hearing for August 15.

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