A bitter confrontation ensued between activists and police officers at the gate of Harambee House after the cops attempted to arrest Boniface Mwangi.
The other activists, led by Hussein Khalid, grabbed Mwangi from the firm hands of the officers and thwarted his arrest.
This happened as activists and families of missing anti-government protesters sought to present the names of their missing kin to the security officials.
However, drama started when the police officers tried to bar the activists from accessing the gate, with rogue officers even attacking journalists’ and destroying their equipment.
Citizen Digital’s Eric Owenga was attacked and his phone confiscated by a police officer for recording videos of the incident.
The march was occasioned by remarks made by President William Ruto during a town hall session in Kisumu on August 29, 2024.
The President said then that he was not aware of any Kenyan who was abducted by the country’s security agencies during or after the recent spate of anti-government protests across the nation.
He went ahead to urge citizens whose kin or friends had gone missing under mysterious circumstances during protests to come forward with their names for action to be taken by the government.
Kenya police instructed to conceal protest deaths, watchdog reveals 6 fatalities
“If there is a family that their child or friend or relative went to a demonstration, whether it is last year or this year, and never came back, I want to know the names because I will take firm and decisive action,” he said then.
“Because as I talk to you today, I don’t have a single name of somebody who has been abducted or disappeared. Kama uko na jina ya mtu alienda maandamano na akapotea, haijulikana mahali yuko, tunataka jina yake, familia yake wakuje.”
Khalid, in a poster shared about the Tuesday march, said they would: “present a list at Harambee House of extra judicial killings and enforced disappearances since the onset of the Gen Z protests.”
He noted that the list would be presented to the Principal Administrative Secretary in the Executive Office of the President, Arthur Osiya, with whom they had reportedly secured an appointment.
A video doing the rounds shows Mwangi lying on the ground with the police officers trying to lift him up.
Other protestors then crowd the scene, some pushing away officers attempting to arrest Mwangi.
“Get out of here. And why are you covering your face?” a protestor is heard telling the police.
The group of activists made their threat that they would present the petition and deliver it to the Office of the President, Harambee House.
The group had marched outside Harambee House when a team of police officers tried grab Mwangi.
This prompted a confrontation between activists and police officers at the gate of Harambee House for almost five minutes. Mwangi could be heard complaining the officers were injuring him.
Dozens of people are missing after they participated in the anti-government protests from June through to August 2024.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights has recorded over 60 cases of people who are thought to have been abducted or have gone missing since the protests began in June.
Human rights groups announced on Friday that three Kenyans involved in a highly publicised abduction case have been released.
They alleged that security forces had kept them captive for weeks after their involvement in anti-government demonstrations.
The case has been the centre of attention after a Nairobi court found then-acting police chief Gilbert Masengeli in contempt for failing to appear to address the three men’s disappearance.
President William Ruto during a meeting with the President of Ford Foundation Darren Walker in New York, on September 24, 2024.
Ruto and Walker met and held consultations in New York on the sidelines of the ongoing 79th United Nations General Assembly.
The Ford Foundation came under sharp scrutiny during the Gen Z protests in the country in June, with Ruto publicly censuring it for allegedly sponsoring the protests.
“Those behind sponsoring the chaos in the Republic of Kenya, I want to tell them shame on them! Because they are sponsoring violence against our democratic nation. I want to ask the Ford Foundation to tell us they are sponsoring violence for what benefit?” Ruto said during an event in Nakuru.
He even threatened to ban the organization in the country.
“We are going to tell them to either style up or leave,” he said.
Today President Ruto is singing a completely different tune to the President of Ford Foundation even as his police are still attacking and trying to kidnap activists like Boniface Mwangi whose only crime was to present names of Kenyans who have been abducted, arrested and others killed by the Kenya police to government officials at Harambee House, the office of the President of Kenya.
“Kenya appreciates the Ford Foundation’s commitment to safeguarding our democracy and supporting Kenya’s calls for reforms in the global economic institutions, climate action and modern technology regulation,” Ruto said following the meeting.
President Ruto has claimed in public rallies that no Kenyan activist have been arrested, kidnapped or killed by his police during the Gen Z protests while every Kenyan knows that is a lie because they have been burying those killed by the Ruto police and parents and family are all over the country giving details of those arrested or killed by the Ruto police.
President Ruto asked Kenyans with those names of Kenyans killed by his police to deliver them to him and now activists and parents of those killed and arrested show up to provide those names at the President’s office and the police are trying to abduct and arrest them for providing the information President Ruto wanted. What the heck is that?
You cannot even run a doghouse like this leave along a country called Kenya. It is sheer madness from this government. They don’t know what they are talking about and Kenyans know that but can this government just stop doing super stupid and dangerous things like this attack at Harambee House?
For over a month now the Ruto police with the big boss facing charges in court to produce these three Kenyans the police abducted, Kenyans were loudly told by the police and the entire government of President Ruto that they have never touched or detained these three people and just when the police boss was about to be sentenced to six months imprisonment for refusing to deal with matter or even show up in court all of a sudden the three are freed from police custody.
3 Men Abducted in Kitengela Last Month Released, Send Message to Kenyans
Collage image of Bob Njagi (left) and brothers Aslam Longton and Jamil Longton
Three men who were abducted in Kitengela on August 19 by individuals suspected to be police officers have been released.
Law Society of Kenya President, Faith Odhiambo, confirmed their safety on Friday, September 20, detailing the whereabouts of activist Bob Njagi.
She also shared a video of Jamil Longton and his brother Aslam Longton, both confirming they were safe.
Describing the ordeal, Jamil and his brother Aslam disclosed that they were released on Thursday night (Sept. 19, 2024) after being dumped in a thicket at Gachie area in Kiambu County. They had been in police detention for more than 30 days and if Kenyans didn’t fight for them to be freed their dead bodies would have been dumped in the dumpsites like others.
“I want to thank Kenyans and all those who stood with us. We were released last night in a thicket at Gachie before we walked and found an estate where we charged our mobile phones and communicated to our family that we have been released and we are alive. We will disclose more details through the LSK president,” Jamil explained.
